Pac-Man maker creates joint social mobile games studio with DeNA

But Pac-Man is already on iPhon--no, social mobile games. Namco Bandai, the company responsible for the most recognizable character in gaming, will take a crack at social mobile games with a new studio co-created by DeNA. GamesIndustry.biz reports the massive Japanese social mobile games company (does Mobage ring a bell?) has contributed 25 percent of the 100 million yen studio project, named BDNA Inc.

While this is certainly a huge step for Namco Bandai, the company already has extensive mobile game experience since bringing a number of its properties like Pac-Man and Galaga to smartphones. In fact, the two companies have even worked together before, according to GamesIndustry.biz, on Gundam Royale. The game released on the Japanese Mobage mobile game network to 3 million players last year.

Namco Bandai Games executive VP Shin Unozawa will lead BDNA's operations, while it's board of directors will be led by Isao Moriyasu, and Keigo Watanabe of DeNA, alongside Hirotaka Reizei and Hideyuki Okabayashi of Namco. The Pac-Man maker has had limited success on Facebook, with just under 1.5 million monthly players across its games, most of which are social renditions of its arcade classics.

All the while, DeNA has been tearing it up since Mobage, now powered by recent buy Ngmoco, launched in English for U.S. and western European audiences through Android. The service will now be the go-to place for games on AT&T Android phones, not to mention the squad of legendary designers DeNA has on board like Mega Man's creator Keiji Inafune. Perhaps BDNA Inc, which opens Oct. 1, is just the boost Pac-Man needs to dominate in a world overrun by new arcade-style games.

EA free-to-play studio GM leaves to head Ngmoco Sweden studio

Yet another EA executive has left the company for a competitor in the casual/free-to-play games industry. This time, former general manager of EA's free-to-play developer Easy Studios, Ben Cousins (pictured), has left to lead Ngmoco's Sweden studio in the making. According to Gamasutra, Cousins left EA back in March of this year, and just now has announced his association with Ngmoco's upcoming Stockholm studio, which will focus on global free-to-play titles for DeNA's Mobage Network.

The games industry is at an inflection point," Cousins explained to Gamasutra. "These platforms are bringing hundreds of millions of new gamers into the fold, and at the same time existing core gamers are discovering the innovation, immersion and connectivity they bring." This is the third time in just under two months that a former EA executive has left the company and later joined a competing free-to-play games provider.

Even Bing Gordon, former EA CCO and now an investor in Zynga, has shared his personal advice for the giant to survive amidst the rapidly shifting games scene. Times are uncertain for everyone in social games. While EA has enjoyed a distant second to Zynga for some time when it comes to Facebook games (and possibly even in wealth), it stills holds some valuable brands like Monopoly and its EA Sports games. So, all is far from lost. Though, it might be time to consider Bing's business-wise words.

[Image Credit: Gamasutra]

Why do you think this many execs are leaving EA in such a short period of time? Will EA survive both this and Zynga's imminent IPO? And what about the games?

No More Heroes for Mobage to bring 'social assassin battle' to phones

Japanese developer Grasshopper Manufacture's Suda 51 clearly wasn't joking when he set out to make "the social game with the most blood." Joystiq reports that, according to a release by publisher Marvelous AQL, No More Heroes (working title) will release on iOS and Android devices through DeNA and Ngmoco's Mobage network as a "social assassin battle." This will be the first multiplayer game in the critically-acclaimed-but-commercially-lukewarm No More Heroes series.

Unfortunately, neither a release date nor more details on just how social this bloody mobile game will be were revealed. But judging from these first images of the game in action, it certainly looks to impress visually. (Frankly, these look a helluva lot like images from previous versions of the series on consoles like Nintendo Wii.)

This decidedly hardcore mobile social game will be released by Grasshopper Manufacture along with three more games in the same format. The first of which will most likely be Frog Minutes, an odd game that's already available in Japan through Mobage that has players capture various insects for a frog to eat.
No More Heroes Mobage 2
Nothing has been revealed of the studio's other two mobile social games in the works other than their titles, Humans vs Zombies and Alien Busters. Based on highly educated guess work, either of the games will feature at least one of the following things: blood, guts, swords and women scantily clad in school uniforms.

Do you plan on playing this game when it releases to Mobage? How well do you think a game like this will do with mobile social game fans? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment