Fortnite Island from stc Syncs in Game Sun with Real World to Help with Ramadan Fasting

The Saudi telecom creates BAITY BATTLE, a Ramadan-inspired map built in Fortnite Creative, where sunrise and sunset times in this custom map sync with the real world to help gamers keep track of time.

With shorter working hours and long, active nights, Ramadan sees a significant rise in gaming hours among Muslims. And when players are having fun, they lose track of time.

stc, Saudi’s biggest telecom, is proud of its Baity Fiber Play, a plan with an impressive 150 Mbps upload speed, promising the smoothest gaming experience ever.

But during Ramadan, that’s an actual problem. People observing fasting need to follow strict times for eating, all based on sunset and sunrise. Missing a meal has real consequences for their days.

stc’s speedy connection is so good it becomes a problem. So, we created the solution.

Wunderman Thompson teams in Dubai and Riyadh teams came up with Baity Battle, a custom Fortnite island, built using Fortnite’s in-game Creative toolset, where time on the island is synced with the real world. That means that when the sun approaches the horizon in real-life, it will do the same in Baity Battle.

That way, gamers can tell when the times for Iftar and Suhoor, the two main meals of Ramadan, are approaching while playing Baity Battle.

The custom island is based on the map of Saudi Arabia, with mountains, cliffs, deserts, the sea, a modern city, and a traditional village. It also has challenges and side-missions inspired by Saudi hobbies, like camping, falconry, and dune bashing.

A smooth, natural in-game solution for a real-world problem, inspired by a strong cultural insight.

The custom-built island in Fortnite Creative is being promoted online via Saudi Twitch streamers inviting players to join the map and attest to the synchronism. stc social media pages also published a launch video to create engagement and bring people to the map.

Baity Battle was featured on Fortnite’s Discover page for the first days of Ramadan. It will receive weekly updates until the end of Ramadan, keeping gamers engaged and returning to play with friends and family.

“Ramadan campaigns and activations often fall under the same topics, year after year. What makes this campaign so interesting is how we solve a problem that is very true to a specific audience, that is often overseen this time of the yea,” said Tiago Bastos, creative director at Wunderman Thompson Dubai.

“stc is a gamer-favourite when it comes to the internet because they do offer superior connection standards. That’s great for 99% of the year, except right before Ramadan mealtimes. Owning that and coming up with the solution is a lot of fun,” commented Rayyan Aoun, ECD Wunderman Thompson KSA.

“Mixing gaming with Ramadan is not the first-place brands are willing to go during this time of the year. That makes this idea so fresh, it’s unexpected, but it makes sense,” added Pablo Dachefsky, ECD at Wunderman Thompson Dubai.