As competition intensifies across the mobile gaming landscape, studios are under increasing pressure to find smarter, more sustainable ways to capture attention. In response, Saga and Etermax are introducing a new model for how gaming intellectual property can operate outside the confines of an app. Their latest initiative brings Willy, the recognizable face of Trivia Crack, into the world of AI as an interactive social presence designed to live far beyond the game itself.
For years, Willy’s witty, friendly personality has been central to Trivia Crack’s identity, helping the franchise reach 150 million annual users worldwide. Now, instead of limiting that persona to gameplay, Etermax is extending it into social platforms where audiences already spend hours each day. Through Saga’s AI infrastructure, Willy is now able to interact directly with users on Instagram and X, hold conversations on a wide range of topics, share posts independently, and organically guide fans toward downloading the game or exploring related merchandise and in-game purchases.
This shift reframes the role of a character mascot. Rather than serving as a static brand symbol or a feature within an app, Willy becomes a persistent digital personality, available at any time. The move reflects mounting industry challenges, as traditional paid acquisition channels grow more costly and less predictable in performance. Instead of relying solely on advertisements to drive installs, the strategy hinges on engagement first, conversion second.
“Character AI agents are a thrilling new form of entertainment for consumers, but they become truly valuable to studios and creators when they’re tied to real products, real IP, and real outcomes,” said Rebecca Liao, CEO and co-founder of Saga. “This collaboration is about leveraging IP that the Trivia Crack team has worked hard to create for a far more organic and effective distribution and user acquisition engine.”
At the core of the initiative is a straightforward idea: recognizable characters can shape user intent long before someone reaches an app store page. By placing Willy inside social-native environments, Etermax aims to shorten the distance between curiosity and action. Conversations replace banner ads, and personality-driven exchanges become the catalyst for installs.
“Our thesis is simple: character-driven AI can meaningfully move the needle on installs for a game that already has massive global recognition,” said Fernando Vasconez, Head of Gaming Investments and Partnerships at Saga. “If it works, this becomes a repeatable model for how traditional studios can extend their IP into social-native environments to solve the user acquisition problem in the game industry, and eventually expanding to other non-gaming industries.”
Technically, Willy’s AI agent operates on Saga’s hyperscaling system, powered by a proprietary framework that integrates large and small language models to generate highly tuned character behavior. The platform allows for programmable engagement and has been designed with future expansion in mind, including potential integration with rewards systems, payments, and monetized interactions. While the current rollout prioritizes acquisition and community building, the underlying structure suggests room for deeper commercial functionality over time.
Etermax views the partnership as a logical progression in its efforts to connect with players globally. “We’re always looking for new ways to meet players where they are and bring them into the Trivia Crack universe,” a spokesperson for Etermax said. “This collaboration allows us to deploy AI-driven engagement as a new acquisition channel, while staying true to the characters and experiences our players already love.”
For Saga, which has positioned itself as a hyperscaling platform for AI and blockchain technology, the collaboration aligns with a broader ambition. Since its launch in early 2024, the company has processed more than 23 million transactions totaling over $2 billion in aggregate value. In 2025, Saga introduced its AI Character Agent Network for Gaming and Digital IP Commerce, outlining a vision in which autonomous agents can independently attract, interact with, and monetize audiences at scale on behalf of creators and publishers.
For Etermax, the Argentina-founded studio behind one of the most-played trivia franchises in the world, the experiment represents both innovation and practicality. If Willy’s AI persona can successfully convert casual social interactions into measurable downloads, it may offer a blueprint for other established gaming brands navigating an increasingly crowded marketplace.
As user attention becomes more fragmented and expensive to secure, the industry’s next breakthrough in acquisition may not come from louder ads or bigger budgets, but from smarter conversations. Willy’s transition from in-app mascot to interactive AI presence suggests that, in the future of gaming, character engagement itself could become the most powerful marketing channel of all.