Yuga Labs Acquiring Roar Studios to Accelerate ‘Bold Vision’ for Otherside

Yuga Labs, the Web3 behemoth behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, has agreed to acquire Los Angeles-based Roar Studios as part of its efforts to expand its Otherside metaverse and create entertaining social experiences for Web3 communities.

Roar Studios was founded in 2021 by entertainment executive Eric Reid and sits at the intersection of music, gaming and social media. In October 2021, the studio raised $7 million to build a “music metaverse” that would allow artists from around the world to creatively collaborate in the digital world.

According to a press release, the Roar team will “contribute their innovative technology, specialized expertise and leadership” to Yuga Labs to help speed up its ambitious plans for Otherside.

“Roar’s dedication to creative content creation and social connections will accelerate our execution of our bold vision for Otherside and Yuga’s ecosystem more broadly,” said Daniel Alegre, CEO of Yuga Labs, in a statement.

Following the acquisition, Reid will join Yuga Labs as the General Manager of Otherside and will oversee its development.

Yuga Labs, which acquired a number of non-fungible token (NFT) projects including CryptoPunks, Meebits and 10KTF, has expressed its intention to craft Otherside as a place for all of its intellectual property to converge. While still in beta, the company has been steadily teasing updates to Otherside via massive live demos it calls “Trips” available to holders of its Otherdeed NFTs.

Last week, Yuga Labs invited 40 of its Ape holders to a live demo of its latest Otherside expansion, showcasing a huge island designed to act as a virtual clubhouse for the Bored Ape community. Yuba Labs chief creative officer Michael Figge told CoinDesk that the team is eager to offer a persistent, interoperable digital space for NFT holders “as soon as possible,” though there’s been no official public release date yet.