Two giants of the children’s play industry have combined forces in a licensing deal between the gaming platform ROBLOX and the toy franchise LOL Surprise.
LOL Surprise Official Party will launch on Roblox’s social gaming platform on April 2, according to a statement to The Licensing Letter from MGA Entertainment.
“This past year has found parents discovering new ways to get their kids to play,” said Aram Atamian. “With that, one of America’s top toy properties LOL Surprise is joining forces with top digital gaming platform ROBLOX – creating a relationship with the 1st Doll World of Roblox on a global level. Through these two leaders in toy/play coming together, billions of fans can now discover a more immersive and shared gaming experience.”
As a lead up to the LOL/ROBLOX consumer launch in April, fans will have the chance to play with and against their favorite gaming influencers, who will be taking them deep into the LOL/Roblox world and ‘testing’ the game before it opens to the greater public. That in-game test of the new features began on Monday, March 1.
Fans of LOL and Roblox will be able to sign-up to play through the app Rukkaz. Once they are signed-up, they will be notified if or when they are chosen to play and which game influencers are playing. The list of gaming influencers includes Megan Plays, Krystin Plays, Tiana, and Miss Charli.
The new world within ROBLOX will feature LOL Surprise doll characters, and it will allow players to mix and match outfits, participate in dance offs, earn unlockable rewards, and more.
Fans who want to test the game will need to sign up for the Rukkaz gaming app, which is currently only available on iOS devices. According to the Rukkaz website, the Rukkaz app allows users to watch gaming videos and “join creator squads” that allow them to “access virtual worlds together.”
LOL Surprise is consistently rated as one of the top toy brands in the US and globally, while ROBLOX enjoys a massive following among kids 16 and under. Roblox is not so much a game as a game platform, which allows users to program their own games, or play games designed by other users. Founded in 2004 and released in 2006, ROBLOX had more than 164 million active monthly users as of August 2020. The company says it has been played by more than half of all children under the age of 16 in the United States.