A unique experience at the heart of vehicle recycling
Recycler Mon Véhicule is using a free Fortnite management game, Car Life Tycoon, to steer 18–35-year-olds towards authorised end-of-life vehicle (ELV) channels in France, where illegal networks are thought to capture up to 300,000 vehicles a year. Players run an ATF-style site, learning depollution, dismantling and the risks of informal operators.
Faced with the scourge of abandoned vehicles in France’s overseas territories and the rise of illegal recycling networks across the country, which capture up to 300,000 vehicles each year, the eco-organization Recycler Mon Véhicule has chosen to mobilize millennials and Gen Z. With a release scheduled for December 18th, the new game “Car Life Tycoon,” available for free on the Fortnite platform, will immerse gamers in a unique experience within the world of car and motorcycle recycling.
“Car Life Tycoon”: Vehicles Never Die
In collaboration with the agency GamersOrigin, Recycler Mon Véhicule has developed a management simulation game, a very popular format on Fortnite, to target the 38 million players on the platform, and more specifically those aged 18-35.
The objective: to raise consumer awareness of the importance of entrusting their end-of-life vehicles to the legal recycling channel, using a medium that directly reaches the target audience at the heart of their passion.
Completely free, accessible on multiple platforms (PC, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, Android, iOS) and from any device, Car Life Tycoon allows players to take on the role of a vehicle recycling center manager. The game transforms awareness into a lived experience, making prevention more engaging. Throughout the experience, players are made aware of environmental issues and health and safety measures regarding vehicle abandonment, confronting the dangers of illegal channels and guiding people towards the best practices of the legal sector.
Gameplay
The premise of the adventure is to develop your own recycling center and progress through about fifty levels:
- Locate and collect end-of-life vehicles (rusty, stuck, infested with mosquitoes).
- Process the vehicles: mini-games to depollute (remove oil, battery, fluids), dismantle (recover parts, glass, and plastic), crush the carcasses, and sort the recyclable materials (metals, plastics).
- Invest for growth: By dismantling vehicles, the player recovers spare parts, which generate “Coins”. This currency allows for improvements to the center, the purchase of new tow trucks (such as the pirogue tow truck in French Guiana), the recruitment of employees, and the unlocking of specialized training particularly for electric and hybrid vehicles to be recycled, which represent a real challenge for the genuine recycling sector.
From mainland France to French Guiana and Réunion
The game offers an immersive experience in three distinct environments, two of which are in the French overseas territories, particularly affected by abandoned vehicles on public roads and suffering from a low reuse rate, meaning that few spare parts are dismantled, refurbished, and resold. Recycler Mon Véhicule aims to immerse the player in the reality of the recycling sector, addressing real-world issues transposed into the game’s universe:
- Mainland France with an end-of-life vehicle (ELV) center located in an urban setting.
- Réunion, characterized by its rugged terrain, with ELVs sometimes hidden or stuck in mud, and the only way to locate them is by boat along the beaches.
- French Guiana, where the recycling center is isolated in a tropical environment, and where ELVs are difficult to access.
In these three worlds, the player is directly confronted with illegal recycling networks, which they can combat by conducting awareness campaigns and removing the territory from traffic light signs advertising vehicle buyback offers from operators who are not actually authorized to do so. The player’s success in processing vehicles also contributes to reducing the map’s overall pollution level, thus improving the visual effects of the environment.
A massive launch strategy and a contest
For its launch scheduled for December 18, Recycler Mon Véhicule relies on an ambitious communication strategy:
- Gaming Influencers: Five leading influencers, including YouTuber Valouzz and TikToker users, will share the experience on their channels for massive visibility and targeted dissemination of prevention messages.
- Competition: A competition rewarding the 5 best players, as well as a prize draw to recognize the participation of all players, are organized via the website “carlife-tycoon.fr“.
Through Car Life Tycoon, Recycler Mon Véhicule offers a participatory game, sustainable over time, transforming a civic action into a real adventure. By integrating the world of gaming, the eco-organization adopts the codes of the new generation to raise awareness of the real environmental and health issues related to vehicle recycling, and perhaps even inspire vocations in the automotive and motorcycle industries.
To access Car Life Tycoon starting December 18: code 1610 3831 5339
Legal notice: This is an independently created island in Fortnite’s Creative mode and is not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Epic Games, Inc.
Further reading on Auto Recycling World
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ELVs in France’s overseas territories: breaking the vicious cycle of abandonment
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France’s Recycler Mon Véhicule: a scalable model for the future of ELV recycling
