Elvis Presley is making his metaverse debut in record-setting fashion.
The rock-and-roll legend will be honored in February with a virtual gathering of impersonators in the Decentraland metaverse, an event put on in a partnership between Elvis Presley Enterprises and metaverse design firm Run It Wild.
The virtual block party will look to break the world record for most Elvis impersonators in one place, and yes, it will be certified by Guinness World Records.
The current record stands at just 895 impersonators, which was set in-person at a North Carolina casino in 2014. Attendees of the Decentraland attempt will be airdropped wearables of an Elvis jumpsuit and wig to qualify.
“Guinness World Record has now approved that avatars are actually human, for the sake of the record, which is pretty interesting,” Adam De Cata, head of partnerships at Decentraland, told CoinDesk in an interview. “So yeah, we are going to beat the record, with ours being virtual and the previous being physical. We’re going to smash it.”
The party is just the first step of a larger “Elvis-On-Chain” rollout, which Elvis Presley Enterprises says will give fans access to the famed singer’s IP vault through other digital assets.
Buyers who purchase the “Elvis Genesis Key” non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a part of the event will have exclusive access to further drops, along with governance rights to vote for how the IP vault will be put to use.
“Elvis loved technology. He was one of the first people to have a remote control television, you know, cell phones in his car. He had the first electronic wristwatch,” Katie Jones, SVP of entertainment at Authentic Brands Group (the owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises), told CoinDesk in an interview. “I’m not going to speak for him as for the metaverse, but I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Read more: Warner Music Group to Launch ‘Concert Theme Park’ in Sandbox Metaverse
Run It Wild had partnered with the Australian Open earlier in January for its Decentraland installation, with similar virtual events heating up as a 2022 trend.
On Thursday, Warner Music Group announced it was building a virtual concert theme park in the metaverse game The Sandbox to host performances for its roster of musicians.
