Dots.eco, a platform for real-world environmental rewards, has emerged as a for-profit firm that may assist recreation corporations develop their audiences via a standard curiosity in saving the surroundings.
Since 2022, the corporate has partnered with over 40 video games with a collective one billion downloads, together with Scopely, Playtika, Plarium, Wooga, Miniclip’s Iliyon, and extra. An estimated 100 million-plus gamers have participated in Dots.eco planet saving actions. And this week, Supercell, Zynga and Rovio are all turning on their integrations associated to environmental themes.
By means of the true world rewards program, gamers can plant timber, shield wildlife, clear oceans, and extra, simply by reaching milestones, buying recreation gadgets, making web site purchases, or finishing recreation missions. The sport turns into the conduit for doing good, stated Nadav Grosz, CEO of Dots.eco, in an interview with GamesBeat.
Dots.eco is a companion in The Enjoying for the Planet Alliance, an initiative facilitated by the United Nations Surroundings Programme (UNEP). At the moment, this system is kicking off right this moment with 57 studios collaborating in its annual Inexperienced Sport Jam with the mission’s official Go-Stay date.
“We thought: What if each recreation may supply affect this manner?” stated Grosz. “When our pilot with Playtika’s Home of Enjoyable confirmed record-breaking outcomes, we knew this needed to turn out to be a platform.”
Hay Day is Supercell’s farming-centered informal title that empowers gamers to guard nature. For the Inexperienced Sport Jam 2025, Hay Day is spotlighting pollinator habitat safety via a marketing campaign supporting conservation organisations through Dots.eco and On the Edge Conservation, turning participant engagement into real-world conservation outcomes.
In Wooga’s June’s Journey, gamers are rewarded with animal- and plant-inspired decorations as a part of the occasion, whereas behind the scenes, Dots.eco is enabling actual conservation motion on the bottom.
And in Social Level’s Dragon Metropolis, gamers can be part of the Surroundings Day Cross to assist plant actual timber via Dots.eco. They’ll obtain a personalised certificates displaying their real-world affect by finishing missions and unlocking the Surroundings Day Monument or the Spiked Leatherback Dragon.
Origins
Dots.eco was based by college pals Grosz, a tech-savvy serial entrepreneur, and very long time environmental activist, and Daniel Madrid Spitz, who has intensive background in operations and gross sales, as a pivot from a positive-impact gaming studio named Moral Wizards.
“We began seeing traction with considered one of our video games and already considered providing our affect stack as an SDK in order that different video games can use it. I wasn’t so positive concerning the outcomes of the sport, and wished to seek the advice of with my pal Tal Friedman, who on the time, was the GM of Playtika’s Home of Enjoyable,” stated Grosz. “When he opened our analytics, the outcomes of our recreation had been so good, that he instantly provided that we’ll run a take a look at with Home of Enjoyable. The gamers liked it, and the outcomes had been above any expectation. We had been shocked, and that is how Dots.eco was born.”
With little or no funding to this point, they’ve managed to signal contracts and combine into a number of the greatest video games and studios within the trade, construct deep know-how and generate large affect.
Based with a mission to avoid wasting the planet and to have interaction gamers of their video games, the enterprise goes properly to this point. Over 3 million gamers gained a Dots.eco certificates and made an affect that contributed to a trigger. They planted 1,400,00 timber, saved 800,000 sea turtles’ hatchlings, protected 7 million acres of wildlife habitat, cleaned 400 tons of ocean plastic, restored over 30,000 corals, and extra.
The very best performing campaigns boosted complete revenues by 10%, elevated first time paying customers by 20%, elevated gameplay by 25%. Fairly good for an organization with simply 13 individuals and about $1 million raised to this point.
“We’re a service that was began after I had a gaming studio. This was referred to as the Moral Wizards, through which I created sustainable video games. And I noticed the necessity for a deeper answer, technical answer, and trusted answer for including environmental affect in a manner that’s traceable, dependable, trackable, clear into video games,” stated Grosz.
They got here up with all kinds of missions the place players may do good, like planting timber, and realized there have been methods to confirm that the timber had been getting planted via satellite tv for pc photos and AI.
“We get photos, movies, every thing we add to our platform, and analyze every thing, test completely different measurements of progress, how the mission progressing, if it’s satisfying, if it’s delivering in line with the promise or not. And all of these initiatives, we convert them into quantifiable micro models,” Grosz stated. “We name it dots. These are the dots, and these are utilized in video games to encourage gamers to carry out actions, to progress within the recreation ranges, to position in app purchases, take away adverts, and extra.”
They ship out certificates and 18% of gamers who get them share it. That turns into a path to virality for the sport, boosting a recreation’s reputation and social consciousness.
“That helps the sport get return guests,” Grosz stated. “We have now consideration and different parameters, and it reveals that we will improve gameplay 25% for the first-time paying customers. These actions can match any recreation. Our momentum is robust.”
“We humbly consider that we’d have the method right here to do actual, transformative change, as a result of donation and charity, it’s good individuals be ok with it,” stated Madrid Spitz, in an interview with GamesBeat.”To make actual change on this entire transformative change, we actually have to harness the companies, the system that we reside in. So I discovered that as probably the most thrilling a part of what we do, displaying that that is our constructive rising KPIs, companies perceive what’s there.”
The way it works
- The Dots.eco platform exposes an API to over 250 vetted international environmental initiatives which are always monitored, together with by satellite tv for pc imagery evaluation, photos from the grounds, and reviews, analysed by inhouse AI know-how.
- Dots.eco can combine naturally with many recreation themes, because it helps a variety of animal species, habitats and topics which are current in nearly each recreation.
- Video games combine the API, or the Dots.eco Unity SDK, and incentivise in-game milestones, or In-App-Purchases. For instance, you’ll save a sea-turtle, or purchase 10ft2 of land for wildlife, shield your recreation hero animal, for downloading the sport, reaching a sure degree, shopping for a pores and skin or eradicating adverts.
With little or no funding to this point, they’ve managed to signal contracts and combine into a number of the greatest video games and studios within the trade, construct deep know-how and generate large affect.
Background
Dots.eco is a platform for environmental rewards that transforms thousands and thousands of micro-casual actions into real-life environmental affect. The corporate can have a good time every particular person who takes constructive motion for his or her firm, their life, and the planet.
By integrating into video games and different apps, the corporate is constructing the world’s largest neighborhood of affect makers and collectors and are devoted to changing every day actions into transformative affect for a sustainable future.
As a B-Corp licensed firm (an organization working for public profit), official companions of the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration, a part of Google Startups for Sustainable Improvement and a nominee for the Earthshot Prize, the corporate is dedicated to creating an actual distinction.
Dots.eco believes that environmental affect might be carefully aligned with enterprise progress, and that it has the method to make a very transformative change on the planet. Dots.eco’s aim for 2025 is to extend its affect by 10 instances from 2024 and construct the world’s largest neighborhood of affect makers and collectors.
“We’re extremely happy with the dimensions of our affect to this point, however much more so of the environmental consciousness it’s constructing within the international gaming neighborhood. We consider gaming could make a transformative change on the planet. And we’re working towards a future the place 5 million Dots isn’t a milestone, it’s a month-to-month, weekly or every day norm,” stated Grosz.
Dots.eco’s actions span past gaming, and it has already partnered with a number of the main corporations on the market, whether or not via their loyalty packages, worker profit packages or direct integration into their merchandise, from media shopping for, journey, to insurance coverage and even electrical automobile rental. Considered one of our predominant targets is to create the world’s largest neighborhood of affect collectors, and to reveal extra individuals to sustainable gaming expertise, offering extra worth to our companions.
World Surroundings Day – June 5
This week, the corporate and different teams going reside with in-game environmental activations throughout a number of prime studios and genres, timed to have a good time World Surroundings Day. These activations permit gamers to contribute to real-world affect, like planting timber or defending wildlife, via common gameplay.
Taking part titles embody Indignant Birds Dream Blast (Rovio), Dragon Metropolis (Social Level), Hay Day (Supercell), Finest Fiends (Playtika) and June’s Journey (Wooga). All of them began on June 4.
Gamers will have the ability to contribute to real-world restoration initiatives by progressing via storylines, finishing missions, or making purchases, all seamlessly built-in into every recreation’s theme and mechanics.
“It was an awesome pleasure to collaborate with Dots.eco for the June’s Journey Wildlife Week marketing campaign. We aimed to make this marketing campaign extra outstanding and thrilling for our gamers in contrast with earlier years, and Dots.eco supplied incredible help to realize this aim,” stated Galina Fedulova, Lead product advertising supervisor at Wooga.
These will not be simply good for the planet – they’re good for enterprise. Previous campaigns utilizing Dots.eco’s platform have boosted revenues by over 10%, elevated first-time payers by 20%, and elevated session time by 25%, all whereas incomes the best sentiment scores some studios have seen
“We partnered with Dots.eco for our Earth Week Group Occasion in Triple Match 3D. This collaboration was an enormous success, considerably boosting our recreation’s KPIs and positively impacting our social channels. We’re excited to work with Dots.eco once more to create extra significant environmental initiatives,” Ori Nabarro, Head of product and recreation design at Boombox, in a press release.
Why gaming is an effective match
“We have to harness a prepare going actually quick. We will both attempt to shift it off the rails, doing degrowth, stopping every thing, or bounce on the prepare and attempt to harness it,” Grosz stated. “There’s an enormous stress on our surroundings. I don’t know if we’re prepared. The oceans are getting darker. We perceive there are a number of crises across the surroundings that we’re going through. It’s not simply local weather. It’s biodiversity as properly. It’s the oceans getting bleached. If the acidity ranges change by loads, this whole layer of plankton can collapse with it.”
As for gaming, it’s an ideal match, he stated, as a result of the trade is flexible and the viewers of players is aware of they’ll change the world.
The corporate is conscious that many individuals within the inhabitants are local weather change skeptics.
However he stated, “Individuals love nature. It doesn’t matter in case you’re Republican, in case you’re Democrat. You’re keen on nature. Possibly you don’t agree about one thing, however you like your nature. You’re keen on the animals round you.”
