The Sandbox announced on X on October 17, 2023, that it had hired “gaming industry veteran Nicola Sebastiani as the new Chief Content Officer (CCO) of The Sandbox”1. Sebastiani had spent two years leading PlayStation's mobile strategy before the move, Decrypt reported2. He had also worked on Ubisoft's mobile team and co-founded Apple Arcade. The voxel-style gaming platform had roughly 4.5 million registered crypto wallets at the time, according to Decrypt.
Five leadership moves at The Sandbox on the record since 2023
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Oct. 17, 2023 | Sebastiani became Chief Content Officer. Nicola Sebastiani was named Chief Content Officer of The Sandbox |
| Aug. 28, 2025 | Yung became CEO. Robby Yung was named Chief Executive Officer of The Sandbox |
| Aug. 28, 2025 | Madrid left as CEO. Arthur Madrid left as Co-founder and CEO (moved to chairman of the board) of The Sandbox |
| Aug. 28, 2025 | Borget left as COO. Sebastien Borget left as Chief Operating Officer (co-founder; moved to global ambassador) of The Sandbox |
| Aug. 28, 2025 | Layoffs. Layoffs at The Sandbox became public |
20 executive hires on the record in 2023
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2023: 20
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
| 2025 | 59 |
| 2026 | 45 |
The move
Supporting creators was the stated reason for the hire. “With a strong track record at leading companies like PlayStation, Apple, Square Enix and Ubisoft, Nicola will play a key role in empowering our creator community,” The Sandbox wrote in its announcement1. Sebastiani gave Decrypt his own read of the moment in the industry. "I think that we are at a historical shift in gaming," he said. "We are fully entering the creator economy."2
Sebastiani described how he saw the platform itself. "I really think of us as a social platform," he told Decrypt. He turned next to crypto and NFTs. “I think it's critical to The Sandbox as far as ownership, as far as giving creators and players leverage on their achievements, what they build,” he said2.
Before and after at The Sandbox
The Sandbox's announcement listed his mandate: support creators on their LAND, oversee game publishing and production, and improve the Game Maker and VoxEdit tools1.
Sebastiani took over game publishing, internal game production and the two creator tools once he started, Decrypt reported2. The outlet compared The Sandbox's 5% platform fee with the cuts taken by Epic Games, Roblox and Decentraland. Decrypt put The Sandbox's monthly trading volume at $2.26 million across roughly 3,840 active wallets, against Decentraland's $19,880 across about 2,770 wallets.
What came next
Sebastiani still held the chief content officer title on September 4, 2024, nearly eleven months after the hire. GamesBeat reported on September 4, 2024, that “Nicola Sebastiani, chief content officer and the head of the U.S., has led the development of the Voxel Games program,” a new initiative to bring outside game studios onto The Sandbox's platform using Unity, Unreal and other engines3. Sebastiani told GamesBeat the company had reviewed 50 studio submissions for the program and had announced two partner titles, with three more expected in the following months. He described the payoff for players directly. “Now, as a player, I can start utilizing my Snoop Dogg avatar and other avatars to play on games on those other platforms,” he said. “It can create something pretty unique, like taking my digital identity across all different games.”
Sources
- The Sandbox, post welcoming Nicola Sebastiani as Chief Content Officer, X, October 17, 2023, https://x.com/TheSandboxGame/status/1714273015364780221
- Kate Irwin, "The Sandbox Hires Ex-PlayStation, Apple Exec to Drive Game's Creator Economy," Decrypt, October 17, 2023, https://decrypt.co/201877/the-sandbox-hires-ex-playstation-apple-exec-to-drive-games-creator-economy
- Dean Takahashi, "The Sandbox unveils Voxel Games program to bring indies to broader platforms," GamesBeat, September 4, 2024, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMioAFBVV95cUxOR1Y1Wll6ZnM2elVpOUl6dGs1aHhKYXUwRXhTb0VYamd2OG0yWnpOMS02aFZfeXozRk1lSVBwM1Y1THNCUnZMbWpWSXpqeE5zbEFib0NZSGNnMUlzeHptV1BWcmpXbV9aSnZremg2NTRhMmtRNy02bk9lYi1XMmtJcnhuejQ3NTlfTzBGY2FjVE5lT2c3R3VjQkJqalhlcWxl?oc=5