Nonprofit educational institution National Geographic is forming a games division to publish and develop games based on its ecological core themes and media properties.
National Geographic Games, or NGG, will work with publishers and developers alike with the mission of inspiring consumers to take an interest in global issues, and help "[make] the National Geographic brand more meaningful to a broader audience."
The new division will be led by corporate strategy and development SVP Paul Levine, and former Take-Two and Bethesda Softworks exec Chris Mate has also joined as vice president and general manager.
At the same time, NGG is partnering with Namco Bandai and Sony Computer Entertainment to publish and distribute games bearing the National Geographic brand on consoles and handhelds, including Nintendo's Wii and DS, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Network, PC and mobile devices.
NGG's first title will be
Herod's Lost Tomb; produced in-house, it highlights content from the December 2008 magazine and its cable channel's feature broadcast on biblical figure King Herod.
Herod's Lost Tomb will be both a free PC flash version and a downloadable for PC and mobile.
Also in November 2008, NGG will release
National Geographic: Panda with Namco Bandai, and
National Geographic: Africa with Sony. Up for December 2008 is
Sudoku Traveler: China, while 2009 will see
Rain Forests,
Greencity and
From The Bottom Up.
"By leveraging National Geographic's leading family brand, core themes and franchises, and its unique content that drives our mission-forward strategy, NGG will create fun games that allow gamers of all ages to experience and explore their world through play," said Levine.
"Our global audiences love to play games, and we plan on creating games in-house as well as working with leading global publishers to develop entertaining games that engage those audiences in a relevant way."
