The Sandbox's P2E rewards system is likely either a failed project or a scam (Update: Finally paid, better now.)
A warning to those who join The Sandbox
Update: Remediation Rewards FINALLY received
Sometime in July about 4-5 months after the first missing reward events, I finally received Remediation claims for 8 events all the same time, worth 300+ SAND.
I was totally not expecting this because they didn’t respond to my ticket or send me any notifications even once. In addition, some of these claims I received seem to be jumbled. For example, I received Land Pass rewards but not Avatar Pass rewards even though I own an Avatar and not Land.
They’re just really incompetent at delivering rewards (and figuring out who gets them since I got mismatched rewards).
I’m disappointed it took The Sandbox this many months and that they didn’t communicate it, but I’m happy I finally got the rewards. So if you’re playing The Sandbox, just be aware that rewards can take many months to arrive and that their tracking system is bad.
2nd update (Nov 2023): Rewards are finally being paid more regularly now, though they’re much smaller now. Still takes about 1-2 months.
Original Post
It’s been 6 months since I started playing the Sandbox and exploring its Play-to-Earn system. The only rewards I received were for the very first events I joined, and since then, I haven’t received a single reward in the past 4 months. In fact, I’m missing about 95% of the rewards I should’ve received.
I never really trusted them in the first place since it felt too good to be true. But after narrowly escaping a dozen other scams and failed projects, I wanted to investigate it. After half a year, I’m now very sure it’s a failed project and possibly a scam.
Every month, The Sandbox has new events and giveaways. So many people are reporting missing rewards on the Discord channel. They supposedly have a system for reporting missing rewards for events, but they haven’t updated it since March. Their community leaders on Discord keep telling us to wait and wait and wait for the reporting to be available. But they’re clearly gaslighting us given the complete lack of updates for the past 4 months.
This really sucks because people are paying them for Avatar and Land sales and expecting rewards in return. Some important VIPs are getting paid, but many of their smaller players like me are not.
All of their rewards payouts are significantly delayed.
I still haven’t received my rewards for the February Festival or March Festival. Originally, according to estimates from Community leaders on Discord, we were supposed to get our rewards within 2 weeks after the event ended. It’s now been 4 months for February and 3 months for March. (I’ve completed every event, and I’ve never cheated or multi-accounted, so I qualify for them.)
Something very suspicious is going on.
Some people have gotten paid 2 months after the events ended, which was already significantly delayed. Many others have not gotten paid. I’ve put in my own ticket for the February event (worth >$100), but I haven’t received a single ticket update in 4 months. In addition, I can’t even put in tickets for the rest of the rewards I’m missing for March, April, and May because they’ve blocked opening tickets for those events.
They have a Notion tracking website that states rewards for French Weeks and March Festival have been paid, but most players on Discord have been complaining about not being paid. So that tracking website is dishonest.
There are 3 likely explanations for why we aren’t getting our rewards:
The Sandbox is incompetent and unable to figure out who gets rewards. This is the explanation their community leaders are giving us, but it feels like gaslighting. I highly doubt this because they already have a system that automatically detects who qualifies for the rewards. I qualified every single time and completed all the missions.
The Sandbox is a failed project. This is a more likely case than the first one. We haven’t seen any updates for reward claims since February. There hasn’t been another event after the May Event. People keep reporting missing rewards.
It’s a scam or Ponzi scheme. This is just as likely as the previous case. Their community leaders don’t seem to be showing any signs that The Sandbox is a failed project. They’re still churning out land auctions and new avatars for people to buy and make profit from, but they’re not paying rewards to everyone. If it’s a Ponzi scheme, they will eventually make enough from new LAND and Avatar sales to pay the rewards, but they have to delay giving rewards until they have enough funds.
In any case, I strongly recommend staying away from The Sandbox until they start paying out rewards to everyone who earned them (assuming they’re even legit). Given their lack of updates in the past 4 months, I no faith they will ever pay our missing rewards.