AT&T and 100 Thieves are bringing their partnership into the metaverse with the AT&T Station

By Alexander Lee

AT&T and prominent esports organization 100 Thieves are joining forces to launch the AT&T Station, a virtual reality space located in the VR platform VRChat. The virtual experience is AT&T’s first foray into the metaverse, and 100 Thieves’ first experiment in digitizing its lucrative apparel lines.

AT&T independently worked with VRChat to begin developing the experience before inviting 100 Thieves to join the initiative. Since the esports org and telecom company announced their partnership in January, AT&T has featured heavily on 100 Thieves jerseys and social media and funded a training room for the first-person shooter title Valorant in the team’s Los Angeles headquarters. According to 100 Thieves associate director of account partnerships Kelsey Schultz, AT&T “felt it was only natural to bring 100 Thieves into the product as leaders in the gaming space.”

In addition to devising the activation, AT&T provided the funding, with creative support from 100 Thieves. Representatives of both companies declined to provide specific details about their financial relationship, but the funds behind the AT&T Station experience came directly out of AT&T’s gaming budget. “Looking at some of our emerging properties, we carve out support so we can continue to grow in that space,” said AT&T assistant vp of sponsorships and experiential Sabina Ahmed.

The AT&T Station experience is deeply immersive, taking the form of a series of virtual rooms surrounded by water and a starfield invoking images of outer space. There are two levels, enabling users to set up camp around virtual hot tubs and campfires or grab a box of VR popcorn before entering a screening room featuring WarnerMedia properties such as “The Suicide Squad.”

The 100 Thieves area of the experience is inspired by the team’s meme-fueled and streetwear-inspired sensibilities, with virtual recreations of 100 Thieves apparel, a 100 Thieves trivia game and a room that allows users to sort pizza toppings into tiered rankings. “The partnerships team worked closely with 100 Thieves’ internal brand, marketing, content and apparel teams to ensure the 100 Thieves were in line with brand standards and the Foundations [100 Thieves clothing line] displays were as realistic as possible,” Schultz said.

According to 100 Thieves member and co-owner Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, demand for virtual reality and metaverse content has been rising among 100 Thieves fans in recent years. The company has responded accordingly: in November 2020, 100 Thieves allowed fans to explore a virtual version of its headquarters in Fortnite’s Creative mode and the team launched a custom Minecraft server to help promote an apparel line in September. Though this is the first time 100 Thieves has activated within virtual reality proper, Hofstetter feels it is important for users to be able to access the experience without using VR headsets. “VR headsets tend to make me dizzy,” Hofstetter said, “so having the ability to explore the AT&T Station without one and still have a great user experience was really cool.”

From 100 Thieves’ perspective, the most unique aspect of the activation was the opportunity to display and …read more

Source:: Digiday