As Snoop Dogg Enters CoD, His Metaverse is on Its Knees

Legendary rapper and pop culture icon, Snoop Dogg hasn’t released an album since since R&G: The Masterpiece in 2004 (which eclipsed one million in domestic sales), but the 51-year-old is still very much in the limelight. While few are strictly to do with the industry in which he made his name, Snoop Dogg’s many, many business ventures have mostly been praised, and a lot of the time, he’s seen as being able to tap into trends just before they hit the mainstream.

Now, however, on the dawn of yet another outing that’ll keep the man once called “Snoop Lion” in the public consciousness, it’s clear that one of his other once-highly touted investments isn’t going so swimmingly. Snoop Dogg will soon be in one of the biggest video games in the world, but at the same time, his metaverse is well and truly struggling.

Getting in a bit too soon before the trend hits

A couple of years ago, on the tails of Facebook becoming Meta, the impending dystopia of the virtual internet world was a very hot topic, with investments flying in from every angle in the hope of getting in early. The metaverse as a concept does boast a lot of promise, but the technology and accessibility simply aren’t there or aren’t mainstream enough yet for it to be little more than a work in progress or the fabled holy grail for advertisers.

In September 2021, Snoop Dogg launched the “Snoopverse,” seeking to get a piece of the NFT house of cards before people clocked on that even unique digital art is still just digital art. In the giant estate that was helped to be brought to life by Sandbox, people could buy up virtual parts of the land to become the rapper’s neighbor. Plots once sold for nearly $7,000 are now worth just over $400, while the premium stuff has sunk from $31,300 to $2,000.

You can see the full breakdown here, but essentially, the Snoopverse faded drastically alongside the rest of the NFT fad once the big fish pulled out to leave the common folk to suffer the losses. This isn’t to say that Sandbox will be closing the estate. It’s still there, and so, there is potential that those plots will regain value if the metaverse ever hits the mainstream. Meanwhile, the rapper has co-founded Shiller, another Web3 outing that seeks to be a real-time live-streaming broadcast platform for the next phase of the internet.

Staying on top through gaming

Snoop Dogg, by all accounts, is quite the prolific gamer and has historically enjoyed several appearances in big-hit games. It began with him playing himself in the superb True Crime: Streets of LA in 2003, before being a playable character in the Def Jam series. He even featured as part of the advertising and arena scenery in the also excellent Tekken Tag Tournament 2 back in 2012, as is discussed in this piece.

His likeness is now synonymous with the stereotypical aesthetic of gangsters and classy rappers now, so much so that you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s Snoop Dogg himself in the game Pimped. Playing online slots for real money isn’t so dependent on characters as video games, and instead, it’s all about the features and volatility, and you can read more about it here. Still, the Snoop-like character on the front of the slot makes it very popular.

Now, having come into Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Vanguard, and Call of Duty: Mobile, Snoop Dogg is coming back to the best-selling first-person shooter as a playable Operator. Coming to Warzone and Modern Warfare II with Season 5, the somewhat random selection of celebrity incomers includes Snoop Dogg, 21 Savage, and Nicki Minaj. Say what you will about their inclusion; it makes for great marketing.

While Snoop Dogg’s initial big play into the metaverse is currently flailing, it’s not dead, and he has plenty of other metaverse ventures and leaps into gaming to keep him at the forefront.