Otherside

Overview

Otherside is a multiplayer virtual world developed by Yuga Labs around social interaction, games, digital avatars and creator experiences. It belongs to the same project ecosystem as Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), but is distinct from the avatar collection. Otherdeed land NFTs, Koda characters and playable spaces are separate parts of the offering.⁠[1][2]

Contents17 sections

Key facts

March 22, 2022Company Funding and Project Plans

Yuga Labs announced a $450 million seed round led by a16z crypto at a $4 billion post-money valuation and confirmed its plans for Otherside. The company said funding would support hiring, partnerships and development. This equity financing was separate from the subsequent virtual land sale.⁠[3]

April 30, 2022Otherdeed Land Sale

The public Otherdeed sale began on the evening of April 30, US Eastern time. The Block reported that 55,000 NFTs sold at 305 APE each in approximately three hours, generating an estimated $317 million at then-current exchange rates. Buyers also paid Ethereum network fees, estimated by the report at $172 million; those fees were separate from Yuga’s sale receipts.⁠[4]

July 16, 2022First Trip Demonstration

Yuga invited Otherdeed holders to enter First Trip as Voyagers and explore areas including the Biogenic Swamp. The event was a multiplayer technical demonstration during early collaborative development, rather than a full launch of the world. Its holder-restricted access differed from the later public model.⁠[5]

March 25, 2023Second Trip Expands Testing

Second Trip offered roughly 90 minutes of interactive activities, including team-based collection games, with holders able to bring a guest. A participating CoinDesk CoinDeskCoinDesk is a cryptocurrency media, events, index, and data company founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York. Its businesses include the CoinDesk news website, the annual crypto industry conference Consensus, and the CoinDesk Indices index business. In November 2023, the digital asset exchange Bullish acquired CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group, and CoinDesk has since operated as an independent subsidiary of Bullish.Open the full entry reporter cited Yuga’s figure of about 7,200 players. The number described participation in one demonstration, rather than recurring active users or paying concurrent users.⁠[6]

April 4, 2023Land and Koda Assets Separate

The original Yuga FAQ records an optional process beginning April 4 in which holders could burn an original Otherdeed for an Otherdeed Expanded and a Vessel, plus a separate Koda NFT where the original land contained one. The process was irreversible, while holders could retain their original tokens by declining it. Land, characters and related game assets consequently require separate identification.⁠[7]

September 20, 2023Technical and Creative Partnerships

Yuga announced partnerships with Hadean, AccelByte, Bad Rhino and Faraway covering high-density simulation and networking, backend services, art and gameplay. It also joined the board of the Open Metaverse Alliance, OMA3, to work on interoperability standards. The announcement did not establish that every planned feature had been delivered.⁠[8]

February 22, 2025Multiplayer FPS Record

Guinness World Records records an Otherside achievement of 2,197 participants in an online first-person-shooter battle on February 22. The certification concerns a specific event and metric, distinct from advertised platform capacity or attendance figures for other demonstrations.⁠[9]

July 2025The Swamp Alpha Opens to the Public

The official FAQ dates the public opening of The Swamp Alpha to July 2025. Public spaces subsequently allowed participation without an NFT through browser streaming or a native client. NFTs affect access to particular avatars and asset features rather than imposing a universal requirement for public experiences.⁠[2]

November 2025Koda Nexus Opens

Koda Nexus opened publicly in November 2025 as an evolving social and exploration space. The FAQ lists Nexus, The Swamp and developer-built experiences accessed through the world selector, reflecting the platform’s progression from staged group demonstrations toward multiple accessible environments.⁠[2]

May 20, 2026New Launcher

The official development log announced a new Otherside Launcher, distributed through the existing launcher on Windows and a download for Mac users. The log also documents recurring updates to quests, levels, emotes and spaces, indicating ongoing development of the publicly accessible world.⁠[10]

September 24, 2026Starpod Introduced

The official Otherside account introduced Starpod as a combination of home, lander and exploration vehicle for launching, traveling and returning across the world. The announcement described the direction of world exploration without specifying completion dates for all land and resource features.⁠[11]

October 12, 2026ApeFest Online Event Announced

The official account announced plans to stream two hours of ApeFest in The Swamp on October 17, alongside a free appearance-item claim that day. As of the October 12 announcement, these were scheduled activities, not completed events or fulfilled distributions.⁠[12]

Accounts, Assets, and Creator Tools

The current FAQ explains that Glyph sign-in creates a self-custodial wallet, while additional wallets can be linked to recognize owned NFT avatars. The platform uses ApeChain and transactions use ApeCoin on that chain. Sign-in, token payments, NFT ownership and gameplay are distinct functions; using APE does not mean that Otherside issued it.⁠[2]

The Otherside Development Kit (ODK) uses Unreal Engine with Morpheus networking to create experiences for the platform. The FAQ still describes an alpha available to selected developers with Unreal experience, rather than an unrestricted, fully released toolkit for everyone.⁠[2][13]