Te reo Māori is heading onto the screens of nine million gamers around the world, with Wellington game developer Dinosaur Polo Club launching a complete Māori-language version of its hugely successful Mini Motorways.
Released today as part of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2026, the free update transforms the game’s interface and gameplay into te reo Māori and comes with another significant milestone — a Māori name gifted to the game by translators Kūwaha Ltd.
Mini Motorways is now also Rori Riki.
The move makes the New Zealand-developed title one of a relatively small number of internationally played video games offering full te reo Māori language support and takes the reo into a digital environment where millions of people, particularly rangatahi, spend their time.
Nine million players meet te reo Māori
The scale makes the project significant.
Dinosaur Polo Club says Mini Motorways has reached around nine million players worldwide.
That means people across the globe playing on Apple Arcade, Nintendo Switch, Steam, PC and Mac will now have the option of experiencing a game developed in Aotearoa through the Indigenous language of the country where it was created.
Rather than treating te reo as an addition limited to Māori Language Week, the localisation becomes a permanent part of the game.
For international players, it could be their first meaningful encounter with te reo Māori.
For players here at home, it provides another opportunity to use and become familiar with the language without necessarily sitting in a classroom.
More than swapping English words for Māori
Dinosaur Polo Club says it deliberately wanted to avoid approaching the project as a simple word-for-word translation exercise.
The studio worked closely with Kūwaha Ltd, alongside Head of Art Shalee Fitzsimmons of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, founders and brothers Robert and Peter Curry, and the wider development team.
That collaboration ultimately resulted in Kūwaha gifting the game its Māori name, Rori Riki.
The process also formed part of a wider effort within the Wellington studio to build understanding of tikanga Māori rather than simply adding Māori language to a finished product.
Ako Academy has worked within the studio as part of that journey, while Fitzsimmons has been leading Dinosaur Polo Club’s Māori and tikanga initiatives.
The approach reflects an increasingly important question for Aotearoa’s creative and technology industries.
If a product is created here, how should the culture, language and identity of this whenua be reflected in what is sent out into the world?
Taking the reo where rangatahi already are
The update also demonstrates how language revitalisation is increasingly moving beyond traditional spaces.
Kōhanga reo, kura, wānanga, marae, broadcasting and whānau have all played critical roles in rebuilding te reo Māori.
But today’s tamariki and rangatahi also inhabit digital worlds.
They play games.
They use apps.
They watch online video.
They communicate through social media and increasingly interact with artificial intelligence.
If te reo Māori is to become an Ake, Ake, Ake — Forever Language, its presence in those spaces becomes increasingly important.
Gaming provides a particularly interesting opportunity because language is experienced through interaction.
Players are not simply reading a list of vocabulary. They are navigating menus, making decisions and completing tasks through the reo.
That can create a low-pressure environment where people encounter Māori words repeatedly while doing something they already enjoy.
A language that travels globally
There is also something significant about where Rori Riki will be played.
Te reo Māori was once actively discouraged within its own country.
Now a video game created in Te Whanganui-a-Tara can carry that same language onto millions of devices around the world.
The update effectively makes te reo Māori part of an international digital product rather than restricting it to a New Zealand-specific version.
That helps reinforce the idea that Indigenous languages belong within modern technology.
Te reo Māori can exist in gaming, software, artificial intelligence, digital media and the creative economy just as naturally as it exists on the marae, in broadcasting or around the whānau table.
A Wellington success story
Dinosaur Polo Club itself has grown substantially since brothers Robert and Peter Curry founded the studio in Wellington in 2013.
Beginning with just three people, the company now employs more than 30 staff.
Its first major game, Mini Metro, earned a BAFTA nomination, while Mini Motorways has attracted international recognition and won the audience award at the Independent Games Festival in 2022.
Seven years after Mini Motorways first launched, the studio continues providing free updates to its international player community.
The company is also supported through the New Zealand Game Development Sector Rebate, administered through New Zealand’s screen and game-development support framework.
Its growth highlights the increasing contribution of game development to Aotearoa’s wider creative and digital economy.
Te reo belongs in the technology we build
But Rori Riki also carries a broader message for New Zealand’s technology sector.
Localisation does not have to be something undertaken only after a product becomes successful.
Language and culture can become part of how New Zealand technology companies think about the products they design.
That creates opportunities for translators, reo specialists, Māori designers, developers and cultural advisers while also exposing international audiences to something uniquely from Aotearoa.
The challenge will be ensuring cultural integrity remains at the centre of that work.
Digital reach can amplify a language enormously, but scale also makes accuracy, tikanga and appropriate engagement with Māori expertise even more important.
From Te Whanganui-a-Tara to nine million screens
During a week celebrating Ake, Ake, Ake: A Forever Language, Rori Riki provides another example of what a forever language can look like.
It doesn’t mean preserving te reo Māori behind glass.
It means allowing the language to move into whatever comes next.
From classrooms to smartphones.
From marae to gaming consoles.
From Te Whanganui-a-Tara to players around the world.
And with Rori Riki now available free to Mini Motorways’ global player base, nine million gamers have just been given another pathway into te reo Māori.
#RoriRiki #MiniMotorways #DinosaurPoloClub #TeReoMāori #TeWikiOTeReoMāori #AkeAkeAke #Kūwaha #ShaleeFitzsimmons #NgātiTūwharetoa #MāoriGaming #Gaming #GameDevelopment #NZGames #IndigenousGaming #IndigenousLanguages #LanguageRevitalisation #RangatahiMāori #TamarikiMāori #MātaurangaMāori #DigitalFuture #CreativeTechnology #Wellington #TeWhanganuiATara #Aotearoa #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea
