CBS original Ghosts, the number one comedy on Paramount+, has expanded into the popular Metaverse.
CBS’ first step into the Metaverse commenced on July 21, 2022 with an immersive experience for fans of CBS original comedy series Ghosts. The experience can be found in Decentraland, a leading next-generation Web3 gaming platform.
Developed in collaboration with Web3 marketing agency CreativeDepartmint, the experience takes fans and their self-designed avatars on a journey through the show’s haunted Woodstone Mansion. There they can solve puzzles, undertake quests, and earn limited edition, collectible NFTs — all in celebration of Ghosts, which returns for its sophomore season this fall.
Ghosts is a single-camera comedy about Samantha (Rose McIver, iZombie), a cheerful freelance journalist, and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar, Pitch Perfect), an up-and-coming chef from the city. They throw both caution and money to the wind when they decide to convert a huge rundown country estate they inherited, Woodstone Mansion, into a bed & breakfast — only to find it’s now called it home by the spirits of many deceased residents.
The departed souls are a close-knit, eclectic group that includes a saucy Prohibition-era lounge singer, Alberta (Danielle Pinnock); Isaac, the 18th-century forgotten Founding Father (Brandon Scott Jones); Flower, a hippie from the 60s (Sheila Carrasco); Pete, an upbeat 80s scout troop leader (Richie Moriarty); Thorfinn, a Viking warrior from 1009 (Devan Chandler Long); Trevor, the pantless-for-eternity 90s finance bro (Asher Grodman); Sasappis, a sarcastic and witty Native from the 1500s (Román Zaragoza); and Hetty, a Victorian society woman and wife of a 19th-century robber baron (Rebecca Wisocky).
Ghosts’ Woodstone Mansion was meticulously created to mirror the series’ actual sets and features delightful and surprising interactions with the show’s main characters, which were voiced by the series’ stars. There are more than 10 types of collectibles that fans can earn that will unlock access and future experiences, such as playing a piece of music on a virtual piano or cooking up a dish that will appeal to one of the characters, and much more.
“We are continually looking for innovative ways to further develop new audiences for CBS programming, and our hit series Ghosts, with its significant following, wide-ranging otherworldly characters and expansive setting, seemed like a natural fit for the Metaverse,” said Mike Benson, President and Chief Marketing Officer at CBS. “This super engaging and elaborate Web3 Ghosts game in Decentraland brings the series to life in an exciting way that’s never been done, enabling visitors to each have their own very unique experience while exploring the world of the show.”
The Ghosts game and NFTs are deployed on the carbon-neutral Polygon network, the leading decentralized Ethereum scaling platform. 1,100 tokens are available for each character with varying degrees of rarity, giving fans the opportunity to own a piece of the comedy’s history.
“Since we opened our doors, CreativeDepartmint has been bringing major media brands into innovative spaces like Web3 to surprise and delight existing fans and attract new audiences to their IP with authenticity and style,” said Jonathan Block-Verk, founder of CreativeDepartmint. “We’re thrilled to help CBS enter the metaverse with the first-ever Decentraland game built by a U.S. network.”
CreativeDepartmint worked closely with the Web3 platform Moonwalk to deliver the collectible NFTs, and collaborated with renowned metaverse studio TerraZero to create an unforgettable Decentraland experience.
“Entertainment has been driving metaverse adoption globally, and Decentraland is excited to have an institution like CBS enter the Metaverse and bring a new type of immersion from the TV world,” said Adam de Cata, head of partnerships at Decentraland Foundation. “This is one of our most captivating projects to date and a clear indicator that Web2 audiences are becoming Web3 communities in the metaverse,” said Ryan Wyatt, CEO at Polygon Studios. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with CBS and CreativeDepartmint to help them delight the fans of GHOSTS in the Metaverse.”
The Ghosts Metaverse activation is part of CBS’ “Summer of Ghosts” immersive marketing campaign honoring the “recently departed” first season and its upcoming sophomore season this fall. Throughout the summer, multi-city in-person events are happening to celebrate the characters. Each character is being honored with distinctive “to die for” activations, bringing their individual worlds and stories into the here and now with a variety of in-person events, stunts and experiences.
Season 2 of Ghosts will premiere Thursday, September 29, 2022 on CBS. The entire first season is available to stream on-demand on Paramount+. The game will be accessible through September here via this website. The series is produced by CBS Studios in association with Lionsgate Television and BBC Studios Los Angeles Productions. It is based on the BBC Studios-distributed format Ghosts.
