North American esports and gaming company GameSquare has announced a collaboration with financial services company Mastercard to create a custom Fortnite experience which aims to raise awareness of deforestation.
Utilising GameSquare’s Moonlight Studios, a Fortnite world known as Restore the Forest Speedrun has been launched. Players will compete against each other to generate trees and plants while running through the level.
To promote the game, Twitch streamers Masayoshi, Maya, and ImDontai will highlight the cause to fans.
The partnership forms part of Mastercard’s Priceless Planet Coalition, an initiative where members will restore 100m trees in areas that showcase ‘the greatest impact on climate, biodiversity, and communities’. Alongside GameSquare, the company has collaborated with Lyft, SiriusXM and American artist SZA for its GRAMMY Awards campaign.
Founded in 2011, GameSquare is one of the largest gaming and esports companies in North America. Launch earlier this year, Moonlight Studios is a new venture that focuses on building experiences across metaverse-like games. In addition to the studio, other high-profile moves include appointing Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins as its Chief Innovation Officer in February 2023, which resulted in the launch of Ninja Labs.
GameSquare is also the parent company of Complexity and operates a creator network enabling content creators and influencers to reach marketing opportunities. The company is also set to acquire North American organisation FaZe Clan, however, this has yet to officially be completed.
GameSquare is one of several companies launching projects in the metaverse space. In December 2023, Gen.G expanded its Crocs partnership to create new Fortnite worlds showcasing the footwear brand
Rustom Dastoor, EVP of Marketing and Communications at Mastercard North America, spoke on the news: “It takes more than one person or one company to create scaled impact for the planet.”
“We are merging passion and purpose in a way that, through a major cultural event, rallies people to come together to create collective action for the planet.”
