14 DAY TRIAL // The Simpsons has managed to get past the 500 aired episodes mark when it comes to television, but the 24 video games based on the franchise have failed to reach the same level of success.
Now video game publisher Electronic Arts and Gracie Films have begun collaborating on a new social game called The Simpsons: Tapped Out, which is set to be launched on Facebook in the coming weeks, aiming to address that problem.
The game will begin with a nuclear meltdown caused by none other than Homer and the nuclear plant where he works, which causes the complete destruction of Springfield.
Players who engage with the game will then be able to re-create the town however they want, with the writers of the show crafting the core story and many of the lines of dialog, which means that there are planty of references to the television show and the Simpsons movie.
Speaking to Gamasutra, Bernard Kim, the senior vice president of social and mobile game development at Electronic Arts, has stated, “Consumers are looking for not only a freemium title, but one that's filled with licensed properties and characters they care about. Our goal is to have an evergreen title that makes consumers and users laugh and enjoy themselves. And we'd love to have that same kind of lifeline.”
The developer added, “We see this product as having a tremendously long tail. The key to a product like this is to continue to generate new content. Just as the writers are creating new content for the program, that's our goal with this as well... I personally believe it's going to be one of our biggest release of 2012.”
Electronic Arts believes that most of the gamers who know and like the Simpsons will engage with the free-to-play section of the game, but he also hopes that the more hardcore fans will be interested in also paying to get more options when it comes to rebuilding their beloved Springfield.