Epic Storyworlds is launching a new hub in Roblox that’s designed to address the challenge of discoverability on the massive gaming platform by creating a showcase for proprietary Epic games and experiences, as well as those created for third-party partners. 

The hub is called Fracterra, and it’s set up as a virtual city. The core game loop of the experience is that as players make deliveries across this urban landscape, they have interactions with various brands. 

Epic Storyworlds has been operating Fracterra in stealth mode for a few months, and has already generated 600,000 views for its own brands (including Bubble’s Hotel and a Slugterra: Battle Arena game that has generated 6.2 million visits platform-wide) in the experience, says CEO Steve Couture. 

But the company is also open to working with other producers, toy companies and kids brands looking to establish a more effective presence on Roblox, a platform with more than 85 million daily active users. 

The first third-party brand Epic is bringing into Fracterra is Squeeze Productions’ flagship IP Cracké. At the heart of which is a CG-animated comedy series that has aired in more than 210 countries (on channels including Disney and Nickelodeon) and racked up more than 600 million views across all the digital platforms where it’s available. 

The Cracké integration in Fracterra, where kids can watch clips from the animated series.

In Cracké’s Roblox game, players are introduced to the show’s lead character—an anxious rooster looking for his kids. As they help him find them, clips from the series play on screen. And the experience also features a branded area where kids can watch short videos more passively. 

Couture says Epic charges roughly US$10,000 (CAD$15,000) to build and distribute a basic integration that includes an area, a simple game and some kind of mechanism for showing videos. For this scope, it takes the company six weeks to add a brand into Fracterra—although he stresses that timing can vary, depending how long it takes to “Robloxify” an IP (a.k.a. make it look high-quality on the platform) and get approvals from the brand owner. And pricing obviously scales for larger, more complex experiences. 

Integrations can also stay on the platform for as long as the brand owner wants, and the expectation is that they’ll get hundreds of thousands of views for the spend, Couture says. Another key takeaway, of course, is all the data gathered from the experience, which can be very compelling proof of audience reach for buyers and other gatekeeper partners.  

And then there’s the draw of being able to try out different kinds of Roblox integrations in Fracterra without spending an arm and a leg. For example, Epic recently incorporated a Gummy Bear character from the digital-first Gummibär IP. He appears on a stage every 10 minutes and sings one song—giving kids a chance to dance and chill out in between meeting other brands.

Next up, the Canadian studio is in talks with the Quebec Winter Carnival about doing an integration to boost awareness for the event. And it plans to feature Epic Story Media’s new series Guiby the Super Baby in Fracterra ahead of the show’s release later this year. 

Images courtesy of Epic Storyworlds.