July 8, 2015 | By Simon
With over $20 billion spent annually on video games and video game content, it’s clear that today’s video game options have come a long way since the days of Pong and Pac-Man.
Unsurprisingly, many gamers aren’t just kids these days as many of the parents themselves grew up playing Nintendo and have their own dedicated video game consoles or computers. In our current age of on-demand 3D printing, it’s also become quite common for enthusiastic gamers to have various characters from their favorite games 3D printed, too.
Today, Amazon has announced that they are teaming up with Sandboxr and 3D Systems to offer fans an entirely new way of customizing 3D printable figurines from directly within Amazon.
The online retailer giant will be offering a “Personalize Now” widget which will allow customers to customize the characters from some of their favorite games. Under the new partnership, game and entertainment companies can now utilize Sandboxr's custom 3D printing platform to provide fans with unique and customizable full-color figurines of their favorite characters that are created in-game before having them 3D printed in photo-realistic colors and delivered to the consumer's doorstep.
To kick off the new offering, more than 35 characters across the Smite, Primal Carnage and Infinity Blade franchises will be offered. Thanks to the wide array of customization options that the Sandboxr platform will enable for Amazon customers, there are literally millions of combinations that can be made to create custom characters using a variety of poses, colors and accessories. For Infinity Blade alone, there are over 12 million possible combinations of unique poses, armor configurations, weapons and accessories!
To create the figurines, customers start by selecting the game character that they want to turn into a physical 3D object. Once they have chosen the character, they can then launch the Sandboxr-powered personalization widget which allows them to explore all of the many possible designs possibilities. Once a style, pose and accessories have been determined, a user can preview their design in a 360-degree turntable view before heading out to the checkout process where the 3D file is processed like any other product in the Amazon product system. The cost for a custom figurine starts at just $29.99 and goes to $89.99 for some of the larger size offerings.
“There is a lot of passion and excitement in the culture of gaming, as well as 3D printing, and by combining these two worlds and allowing customers to design and personalize their favorite video game characters we can bring enthusiasts even closer to the games they love,” said Steve Johnson, Director for the Amazon Marketplace. “3D Printed Products on Amazon is still in its early days, and we are eager to offer customers the freedom to be designers and create one-of-a-kind items.”
For those keeping track, it’s only been a year since Amazon launched their 3D Printed Products store and the number of customizable products has already grown more than 150 percent.
To help bring down the costs for consumers, Sandboxr will be leveraging 3D Systems’ advanced ColorJet additive manufacturing technology on their ProJet x60 series of 3D printers.
“We are incredibly excited to partner with Sandboxr and Amazon to enable gamers everywhere to bring their characters to life with stunning, fully-customizable 3D prints,” said Cathy Lewis, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, 3D Systems. “Sandboxr’s digital customization and fulfillment model is a perfect example of how our technology integrates into and enhances existing products and experiences, and we believe that their innovative and scalable video game platform will drive further awareness and adoption of 3D printing.”
“I believe the relationship between Sandboxr, Amazon and 3D Systems demonstrates how this disruptive 3D printing technology applies to the individual consumer,” said TJ Young, President and co-founder of Sandboxr. “We started Sandboxr four years ago with the dream of bringing customizable 3D printed content that was meaningful and interesting to millions of consumers worldwide. Launching our 3D printing Digital to Doorstep™ platform with Amazon and partnering with 3D Systems for global fulfillment now makes our original dream a reality.”
Those interested in trying out the service can do so by heading over to the new Amazon Sandboxr store.
Posted in 3D Printing Services
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