Hiya! Welcome to Edition #17 of The SEG3 Report.

Back at it again after SEG3 London, and with so many Roblox updates bouncing around, we tried to avoid highlighting Roblox this week… and failed. We cover why we failed in discussing the BBC’s Roblox experience General Election update.

We also cover Hamster Kombat again, because it is wild, as well as NASCAR’s Rocket Racing game built by Karta.

So, here’s what you need to know this week:

• The BBC creates a Roblox game for the General Election; is it a tipping point?

• Hamster Kombat reaches 239 MILLION players

• NASCAR and Karta launch Rocket Racing game

Let’s get it!

The BBC creating a Roblox game for the General Election is a sign that Roblox has reached a tipping point

The BBC has introduced an election-themed update to its Roblox game "BBC Wonder Chase" ahead of the UK General Election on July 4, 2024. This update features Larry the Downing Street cat, who sets challenges for players to find ballot boxes within the game. Successful players can have Larry as their in-game pet. Additionally, avatars of BBC presenters are included, providing educational facts about elections.

Fiona Campbell, controller of youth audiences for BBC Three and BBC iPlayer, highlighted the success of BBC Wonder Chase in attracting the under-25 audience with content from popular BBC shows like Doctor Who and Match of the Day. Patricia Hidalgo, director of BBC Children’s and Education, emphasized the BBC's commitment to making news accessible and engaging for younger audiences.

Since its launch in April 2024, BBC Wonder Chase has garnered over one million visits and has featured crossovers with other BBC shows, enhancing its appeal. Developed in collaboration with Bristol-based games developer Mobile Pie, BBC Wonder Chase is available for free on various platforms, including PC, mobile, PlayStation, and Xbox. This initiative aims to combine education and entertainment, offering a unique and interactive way for young players to learn about the electoral process while engaging with familiar BBC personalities and characters.

Why should you care?

We cover many Roblox-related topics here in the SEG3 report, and this week I planned to avoid covering any Roblox-related news. Seriously. Clearly, that has become impossible - we have reached the tipping point.

Taken from Malcolm Gladwell's book of the same name, the tipping point is about the small changes can lead to significant and rapid shifts in ideas and trends when they reach a critical threshold. Gladwell defines a tipping point as "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point" where an idea, product, or behaviour crosses a threshold and spreads rapidly. With Roblox, it seems that time is now.

For 12 months, we have been covering sports, fashion, and entertainment marches into the metaverse. Now, the BBC, an organization as traditional and fundamentally British as ‘tea and biscuits’, creating a Roblox game to engage young people in the 2024 General Election shows us the perceived value of Roblox in the media mix.

Many can recall a time when they were starting to come to grips with Facebook as a place where businesses and brands suddenly ‘had to’ be present, and the campaigns and experimentation that followed. This seamlessly spread into Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and beyond. And with the rise of TikTok, marketers are fairly well-adjusted to creating social media content.

Roblox is Facebook for gaming. It’s not, but it is. The first major platform that brands must master, as society rolls towards a new normal for content consumption - transmedia, playable media, gamification of media - is here now. And while video games, Minecraft, and other platforms have been around for a while - Roblox itself launched in 2006 (check out the Google-esque logo!?) - Roblox is now a must-have platform for the media and brands to reach people.

A follow-up on Hamster Kombat

Two weeks ago, we covered the viral phenomenon ‘Hamster Kombat’ and its issues with Iran. Now, the Telegram CEO calls the crypto game Hamster Kombat the world's 'fastest-growing digital service,' and the project shows no signs of slowing down!

Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder and CEO, announced that the viral game Hamster Kombat has reached 239 million users ahead of its token launch.

Mini apps like Hamster Kombat can be played by any of Telegram’s 900 million-plus users without leaving the messaging app. Many of them, including Hamster Kombat and its spiritual predecessor Notcoin, have integrated with The Open Network, Telegram’s blockchain network of choice, to lure players with promises of crypto rewards in the form of token airdrops.

While Hamster Kombat has claimed a massive and rapidly expanding user base for weeks, Durov confirmed these assertions for the first time on Thursday, saying the mini-app has reached a staggering 239 million signups within just three months.

Why should you care?

Two reasons: 1) Hamster Kombat is becoming a phenomenon, and 2) this is a wave of social gaming with a tap-to-earn mechanic.

Starting to mess around with Hamster Kombat feels like entering a new part of the internet.

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has thrown his weight behind Hamster Kombat, praising the crypto game taking over his messaging platform, “A new era is arriving, and we are witnessing its arrival in real-time,” Durov said on Thursday in his Telegram channel, describing Hamster Kombat as the current leader of a “new wave” of mini apps that he believes are poised to bring blockchain tech to the masses.

While many say that providing ‘utility’ will bring blockchain to the mainstream, it may be hamsters.

NASCAR and Karta launch Rocket Racing game in Fortnite

NASCAR is collaborating with UK metaverse studio Karta to bring its iconic tracks to the Fortnite game mode Rocket Racing. The first reimagined track is the Chicago Street Course, with more tracks to be added throughout 2024.

Players can race using their own Fortnite cars, navigating multiple routes and mastering speed, drifting, and obstacles in both multiplayer and solo modes. This marks NASCAR's official entry into the Fortnite ecosystem, coinciding with the real NASCAR Chicago Street Race on July 7th.

The collaboration aims to provide a high-octane racing experience, blending NASCAR's intensity with Fortnite's dynamic creativity. NASCAR's move into Fortnite is intended to be a lasting presence, with plans to introduce more tracks and racing experiences. Karta, known for creating engaging virtual experiences, aims to capture the essence of NASCAR racing and merge it with Fortnite's fun, creating a unique and immersive experience for players.

Why you should care?

This collaboration is seen as NASCAR's first step into the Fortnite ecosystem, with plans to add more virtual recreations of NASCAR tracks. It follows on from the successful launch of the NASCAR experience in Roblox. 

The NASCAR integration into Fortnite's Rocket Racing is part of a broader strategy to engage a global audience and push boundaries in connecting with younger fans.

This collaboration represents an interesting crossover, potentially introducing NASCAR to a new generation of gamers while offering existing fans a novel and fun way to experience tracks and play.

In other news…

A quick round-up of other stories we found interesting this week!

• Club Brugge launched their kit on Roblox

• McDonald's Teams Up with Hit Anime Series JUJUTSU KAISEN

Working on anything cool, or have a press release you would like us to cover? Send it in for the chance for it to be covered in next week’s edition!