South African Rooibos featured in hit game

Rooibos Council spokesperson Adele du Toit says they were thrilled to find out that Rooibos features in Enshrouded, a popular survival action role-playing game that released a few weeks ago.

German developer Keen Games released Enshrouded on 24 January 2024 in Steam Early Access.

In a post published on Steam a few days later, the team announced that Enshrouded had attracted over a million players.

“The inclusion of Rooibos into Enshrouded has come as a complete surprise and is sure to drive Rooibos’ visibility and reach new demographics,” Du Toit said.

She said gaming has grown from a niche hobby to one of the biggest markets in the entertainment industry, with more than 3 billion gamers worldwide.

“By incorporating authentic products, like Rooibos, into a game often contributes to a more immersive gaming experience, particularly where real-world items are integral to the gameplay and are contextually relevant,” said Du Toit.

“We hope that players worldwide will associate positive experiences with Rooibos in the game, which could potentially lead to increased awareness and a greater demand for our locally grown tisane,” says du Toit.

In Enshrouded, you play the Flameborn, the last hope of an ancient civilisation.

Your fight is against the Shroud, a creeping blight that absorbs and mutates all life it encounters.

To push back the Shroud and bring back life to the kingdom, the Flameborn must master powerful weapons, spells and armour while fighting fierce creatures.

To survive, resources, such as wood, stone, metal, leather, cloth and other rare materials are collected by either looting chests, crates and containers or harvesting trees and rare plants, such as Rooibos.

Although difficult to come by in the game, the Rooibos shrub is found in the Nomad Highlands region and looks like it would in spring when it’s in full bloom, covered in tiny yellow flowers.

The Council said one possible reason Keen Games incorporated Rooibos into their game was likely due to its growing popularity in Germany and Europe at large.

“Nowadays, Rooibos is available in almost every German supermarket, department store, health food shop, specialised tea shop and even at petrol station convenience stores,” the Rooibos Council said.

“The South African brew makes up about 10% of the tea that Germans drink. ”

The Rooibos Council said that almost 10,000 tonnes of Rooibos were exported to more than 40 overseas markets last year.

Japan, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK made up the top five importers of the product.

Enshrouded is currently available on Steam for R279 and set for release in late 2024 for Windows PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S.