Leading games studios are marking Earth Day by joining PlanetPlay’s new Make Green Tuesday Moves (MGTM) initiative, which will enable both industry and players to make an important real world impact in the fight against climate change.
Sybo (Subway Surfers), Lockwood Publishing (Avakin Life), Ten Square Games (Fishing Clash) and CM Games (Nitro Nation) have all been confirmed as proud MGTM launch partners.
On the first Tuesday of each month, starting June 4, 2024, each participating studio will launch a ‘green’ item (or bundle of items) within their game(s) that will be exclusive to the MGTM movement, remaining live until the next monthly activation begins.
The inaugural MGTM will see 100% of the proceeds from the sale of in-game items – which can comprise new and/or upcycled downloadable content goods such as characters, costumes and objects – invested into fully certified sustainability projects by not for profit digital platform PlanetPlay.
Throughout the year a number of the MGTM activations will be supported by a ‘Star of the Month’ from the world of entertainment, supported by a huge social media campaign, helping to inspire gamers all around the world to ‘Make Green Tuesday Moves’.
The first wave of MGTM partner studios have over 36 million daily players, with games that have been played over four billion times, estimated at 400 million monthly active users.
All studios need to do in order to participate in the initiative is integrate PlanetPlay’s API and/or promo codes to release an item or items on the PlanetPlay store or in-game, as well as supporting the movement through their own comms channels.
When celebrities are involved, PlanetPlay will provide licenses to studios which means that they can create items/DLCs relating to the celebrities, following the theme of the active superstar – with a CTA around Make Green Tuesday Moves.
All gamers need to do is continue to play the games they love, with no change in style or habit required to contribute to amazing sustainability causes.
These sustainability causes include PlanetPlay’s flagship Hongera Project, which aims to help over 150,000 families in Kenya improve their living conditions by manufacturing and distributing clean cookstoves to local communities, resulting in around 2,000,000 tonnes of carbon emissions being saved.
A collaboration with Ten Square Games in the widely played Fishing Clash resulted in an engaging in-game event, rallying 50,000 users and raising €20,000 for the WAI Wanaka water conservation project in New Zealand.
These in-game green activations also generate proven uplift for studio partners across multiple commercial and engagement metrics. Lockwood Publishing saw green content from Grammy nominated recording artist Fat Joe feature as part of its Avakin Life virtual world, driving a 6% increase in downloads on the Google Play store over the launch period, plus a 104.8% uplift in new user acquisition. That was alongside a 58.7% upswing in reactivated players, 1600% uplift in sales of one particular in-game item and a further 458% increase in sales across 30 other items.
In addition, a recent collaboration with Latin artist J Balvin and Sybo’s popular Subway Surfers game saw a portion of the proceeds from the star’s in-game character purchases donated via PlanetPlay to the Hongera Project. Plus, limited edition t-shirts featuring special designs inspired by J Balvin were made available through the PlanetPlay storefront and bundled with a variable carbon emissions reduction starting at a minimum of 100 kg CO2.
Sybo and PlanetPlay were able to offset over 2000 tonnes of carbon emissions in the campaign’s three week run, the equivalent of a concert with nearly 100,000 guests.
In the coming months, PlanetPlay will unveil more exciting Green Tuesday partnerships with game makers, fashion brands and music industries.