...but will users 'LIKE' it?
Today, Namco Bandai Games, Inc. announced that they will be launching two made-for-Facebook games, City of Football and Treasure Abyss. With over half a million users on Facebook, it's become one of the most popular ways to advertise today. Namco Bandai plans to make full use of the SNS (Social Network Service) and already plans to develop many more games for its users.
City of Football is a game that allows you to act as the owner of a team; trading and recruiting players to enhance the team's overall value. The cool part is, your team management uses actual and constantly updated official game data from the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Liga Espanola and UEFA Champions League.
Treasure Abyss sounds like a light Dungeon Crawl from D & D, sans 20-sided dice. Together with Facebook friends, users can explore dungeons and perform a number of character jobs. Namco Bandai promises to continually add new content and character jobs to keep things interesting.
The beta for these two games will be released late August (so, pretty much any time now) and will be free to play. As with most free-to-play video games, additional items and upgrades will be available for purchase.
For you Facebook users, you can keep up to date on the latest from this two-headed gaming giant through their official fan page. (A two-headed gaming giant who can't decide which name comes first...press releases say "Namco Bandai" while the logo says the opposite. Weird.)
It's kind of scary, considering the #1 video game being played at the moment anywhere (not just on Facebook) is Farmville (I will never understand that). That been said, I'd say City of Football and Treasure Abyss might just pave the way for Namco and Bandai to get a piece of that social networking "I'm supposed to be working but playing a game on Facebook instead" popularity pie. And hey - those who get fired for lack of productivity will soon be able to play these and many more games on their iPhones while standing on the unemployment line.
In the end, Gamers always win.
