Hyundai Launches Metaverse Space On Roblox Video Game Platform

Hyundai has officially launched a metaverse space called Hyundai Mobility Adventure in the online gaming platform Roblox.

If the term “Roblox” is only a very, very vaguely familiar one to you, that’s likely because you’re over the age of 16 and don’t have kids. Per The Verge, more than half of all American kids under the age of 16 played Roblox in 2020.

What’s Roblox? Well, it’s an online gaming platform, but it’s not quite a game. It’s a place where anyone can make games. So users make things for other users to play. Users can then make money by selling aesthetic in-game knick-knacks to other players. Some people have made more than a million dollars doing this and Roblox, which went public earlier this year, ended up with a market capitalization of roughly $45 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

And so, Hyundai has decided to become the first automaker to launch a space on the platform, which it’s calling Hyundai Mobility Adventure. Just like America’s children, Hyundai will be able to live a fantasy version of its life in which everyone can play with its cars, its robots, and its urban air mobility transportation devices.

The space will contain five “parks” which include Festival Square (a central basecamp where there’s music, people, and celebrations), Future Mobility City (where users can experience future mobility solutions), Eco-Forest powered by Ioniq (where slow living is encouraged and fairy tales coexist with future green tech), Smart Tech Campus (where users can pretend to be engineers and designers), and most intriguingly Racing Park powered by N (a racing themed area).

“To build innovative relationships with young people, we will strengthen our virtual customer experience content for familiarizing them with Hyundai Motor’s new vehicles and future mobility solutions on Hyundai Mobility Adventure,” said Thomas Schemera, Global CMO, Executive Vice president and Head of the Customer Experience Division at Hyundai Motor. “We plan to continue to use the metaverse platform for communication of Hyundai Motor’s new vehicles and future mobility solutions, so please keep an eye on our upcoming content.”

The automaker has already opened a beta version of the park that includes Future Mobility City and Festival square, Eco-Forest is set to launch in October, while Racing Park and Smart Tech Campus will follow before the end of the year.