A Miraculous mini-game built into Roblox has hit 100 million plays in only seven weeks, demonstrating once more the power of licensing on the Roblox platform.
The game Miraculous RP: Quests of Ladybug & Cat Noir was developed by Toya Studio, a gaming dev team that specializes in creating games for the Roblox platform.
“This just demonstrates the power of the platform where, even as a believer, you can’t believe when it’s actually happening,” said Toya CEO Anat Shperling in an interview with GamesBeat. “We didn’t do any marketing. We didn’t do any user acquisition. We didn’t do any publication of any sort. We wanted to check if there were issues or bugs with the game. So we just told our community on Discord and other social media and and Zag announced on theirs.”
Roblox is in itself not a video game, but rather a platform on which other developers can build games, or even virtual items for sale. It’s a lucrative space for developers and licensors, as some of the popular Roblox games have been played billions of times. On average 32.6 million people logged in to Roblox every day in 2020, and the platform paid out a quarter-billion dollars to more than 1.25 million creators.
Miraculous Ladybug is about two typical teens with secret identities, Marinette and Adrien, who can transform into the superheroes Ladybug and Cat Noir when evil threatens Paris. The show has more than 15 million subscribers and 22 billion views on YouTube, and it’s broadcast in 120 countries. Fans have viewed more than 300 million hours of content. Zag is also making a movie based on the TV show.
Game Developed In Partnership With Zag Games
The popular show Miraculous was developed by the global animation company Zag, which has also driven a massive wave of licensing for the series. Zag also has its own gaming subsidiary, Zag Games, which partnered with Toya on this first Roblox project.
“We’re happy with the performance,” said Elinor Schops, the vice president of gaming experience at Zag Games. “We announced we were releasing the game in beta form and it was like setting it on fire. The players are more like the casting directors of the game, where they can tell us which characters they want in the game. It’s an extension of the Miraculous universe. No other platform lets us listen to the fans and implement what they want as quickly as Roblox.
Toya said 88% of players gave the game a “thumbs up.” Without any marketing efforts, the game exceeded 1 million daily active users in its first week of beta, with a rolling 7-day average of 1.2 million users, representing almost 3% of Roblox platform’s global daily active user base.
“Before they see something on TV, they get to see in it the game and become the directors of the show,” Schops said. “That’s what makes this game different from any other game that launched on Roblox. We’re giving them the power.”
In Miraculous Ladybug, players are transported to Paris. There, they can role play characters from the show, re-create their favorite moments, hang out with friends, explore the city, play mini-games, defeat villains, and create their own Miraculous superhero.
Developers Surprised At Speed Of Adoption
Shperling that she never anticipated such rapid uptake during the beta testing mode, and feels it’s a testament to the power of the platform. “Roblox feels like the ideal platform for game developers because it’s all about the community,” Shperling said. “And we’ve been working very, very closely with them on everything we developed in the game. We have thousands of followers on our Discord channel. And they are involved on a daily basis sharing insights and ideas on the game.”
In Miraculous RP: Quests of Ladybug & Cat Noir, players are transported to Miraculous Paris. There they can role play characters from the show, recreate their favorite moments, hang out with friends, explore the city, play mini-games, defeat villains, and even create their own Miraculous superhero.
The launch of the Roblox game coincides with the debut of ZAG’s second big-budget animated movie, Miraculous World – Shanghai – Lady Dragon. Fans are also awaiting the launch of the theatrical feature, Ladybug & Cat Noir: Awakening, which boasts a $100 million budget, and is scheduled for release in fall 2021 or Q1 of 2022.
Miraculous has grown its digital reach by 178 per cent over the course of the last year, and now attracts over 15 million subscribers across its nine official YouTube channels, currently available in eight languages. With a total 22 billion views, fans have collectively viewed more than 300 million hours of content.
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