PlanetPlay’s new initiative helps studios earn more revenue, while fighting climate change

As we step up to recognise Earth Day 2024 – the 50-year-old global event that seeks to highlight issues affecting our climate, oceans, and planetary peace – not-for-profit organisation PlanetPlay wants to help game studios and players make meaningful change.

By harnessing ‘passive activism’, PlanetPlay's expertise lies in helping studios create in-game promotions that inform players about green issues and galvanise them to contribute to real-world sustainability causes "without changing the games they play or how they play them".

Thanks to an enviable celebrity network that spans the games, music, and entertainment industries, PlanetPlay is perfectly positioned to help studios implement environmentally-conscious messaging with its new campaign, "Make Green Tuesday Moves" (MGTM).

A twist on the organisation's own "Make Green Moves" strapline, the bold initiative seeks to use the first Tuesday of every month to showcase critical green issues in a friendly, accessible way to gamers – and, ultimately, help studios sell more games and IAPs.

"When we were originally in discussions with studios about evolving from one-off in-game green activations to a regular, ongoing campaign involving multiple partners and games, it became clear that a recurring monthly activation would keep studios, celebrity partners and players excited and engaged," explains Rhea Loucas, Founder and CEO of PlanetPlay.

"What we have built with our founding MGTM members is unique. We're going to have multiple studios talking about the movement, combined with celebrities and PlanetPlay, and this triangulation of comms will deliver a diverse portfolio of games, game items, and commercial uplift for all involved."

"We're going to have multiple studios talking about the movement, combined with celebrities and PlanetPlay"

Rhea Loucas, PlanetPlay

Kicking off on June 4, 2024, SYBO (Subway Surfers), Lockwood Publishing (Avakin Life), Ten Square Games (Fishing Clash), and CM Games (Nitro Nation) have all been signed up as MGTM launch partners to create a unique ‘green’ item – characters, skins, weapons, costumes; you name it – that will only be available for that month, with the campaign refreshing with new activations on subsequent first Tuesdays.

Sales of those in-game items will then be invested into fully-certified sustainability projects, such as PlanetPlay's flagship Hongera Project, which aims to help over 150,000 families in Kenya improve their living conditions, or the WAI Wanaka water conservation project in New Zealand, for which 50,000 Fishing Clash players raised funds simply by engaging in an in-game event.

And because PlanetPlay works alongside studios to devise memorable campaigns, game devs and publishers can be sure that the ideas and messaging not only complement that of their staff, but their games, too. All studios need to do is integrate PlanetPlay’s API and/or promo codes to release an item or items on the PlanetPlay store or in-game, and support MGMT via their own communication channels.

If celebrities are involved in the promotion as a ‘Star of the Month’ – say, music artists J Balvin or GRAMMY-nominated Fat Joe, who have featured previously in PlanetPlay activations in Subway Surfers and Avakin Life, respectively – PlanetPlay will provide all necessary licences, so studios can safely create items/DLCs related to the celebrities.

"We’re talking to many different people and properties, across the worlds of entertainment, music, movies and sports," says Loucas.

"We’ve already collaborated with music management specialist Roc Nation for standalone in-game activations featuring J Balvin and Fat Joe, and we’ll be revealing more about specific Make Green Tuesday Moves IP collaborations throughout the summer."

With the first wave of MGTM studios racking up 400 million monthly active users and 36 million daily players, what's stopping your studio from stepping up?

Lockwood Publishing saw its Avakin Life partnership with Fat Joe drive a 6% increase in Google Play store downloads and a 104.8% uplift in new user acquisitions – and that's on top of a 58.7% uptick in reactivated players, and a 458% increase in in-game-store sales, too (see infographic, below).

Climate change is a big subject, but PlanetPlay stresses there’s lots of actions, in addition to joining the MGTM movement, that studios and gamers can take right now to support the fight against climate change.

"Probably the biggest thing is for studios to better understand their audiences and the environmental causes they are most interested in, i.e. water conservation, carbon reduction, and so on," says Felix Bradshaw, Global Head of Business Development at PlanetPlay. "We work with studios to create small in-game surveys, the data from which will then help inform the direction of their future green activations.

"Ultimately, all they need to do is work with PlanetPlay – we have done the thinking and heavy lifting. We don’t want to disrupt the relationship between studios and their player communities; we want to enhance it by creating really easy ways for players to support the planet doing things they already do in the games they already play."

PlanetPlay is always looking to welcome new studios and games to the Make Green Tuesdays Moves campaign – even if they’re not sure quite how their game could implement it just yet.

"Collectively, we as [the games industry] can be doing so much more," admits Bradshaw. "As part of our consultancy pillar, we work with studios to help establish their green baselines and achievable goals, then help them to launch compelling in-game green activations that support verified environmental causes without having to start from scratch.”

Bradshaw adds: "Even if a studio doesn't think there is a green angle for their game, we invite them to challenge us to find one, because there always is, regardless of genre. Working with PlanetPlay is very easy through the API or via promo codes, and we also provide the MGTM talent/IPs, as part of the movement."

No, it's not easy being green; but with PlanetPlay on your side, it may be easier than you think…

For more details of how to get your studio involved in the Make Green Tuesday Moves initiative, contact PlanetPlay’s Felix Bradshaw at felix.b@planetplay.com, or check out the Make Green Tuesday Moves website.