Jimmy Buffett, in collaboration with THQ, is bringing a new online social game "Margaritaville Online" to Facebook and all iOS devices, except iPad. The game will officially be released later this year but there will be an exclusive preview of the game for those attending E3 in Los Angeles. This casual online video game is aimed to generate user base from Buffett's fans, often called Parrotheads, and the 45 million Facebook who are addicted to games like FarmVille.
Though Buffett is touring at the moment, he will give a special appearance at the booth of THQ at E3, where he is expected to promote his new game. Buffett stated that "The Margaritaville laid back state of mind is inherently social, and THQ has captured the spirit of that lifestyle in this game." He added that "With Margaritaville Online, fans across the globe can party together any time and any place." This game is developed by Exploding Barrel Games, which has promised the players to have a thrilling 3D experience along with innumerable features showing a range from tropical environments to a full catalog of Buffett's music. Players will have features like creating their own island resort, play mini-games within the game and interact with special characters inspired from Buffett's own music and literary works, like Captain Tony and Joe Merchant.
Danny Bilson, the senior executive of THQ, entrusted Frank Marshall to make Margaritaville public to its consumer base. "Frank Marshall is essentially one of the producers on the game," revealed Bilson, further disclosing that "He and Jimmy work very closely with us on every element in the game. Everything in the game is based on ideas from the songs and books." Bilson professed that Margaritaville will be different from other Facebook games, including the widely played Zynga's CityVille, since its intense 3D experience.
"We think social games are a big part of our future," told Bilson. He declared that "In the social gaming space it's important to have an ecosystem of games to make the whole thing work, so that people can share and go from one world to the next. You're going to see THQ focusing some energies around that in the next year." Buffett will be the first musician to actually embrace a full-time casual online gaming space. Even though artists like Lady Gaga and Dr. Dre have previously collaborated with Zynga, but those were only promotional endeavors and not a full-scale deal.
No comments:
Post a Comment