Facebook success doesn't come easily, but Kabam isn't doing badly for itself. Now the developer is hoping to capitalize on The Godfather franchise and has reached a major deal with Paramount and director Francis Ford Coppola to expand the franchise’s gaming experience.
Kabam has announced Godfather: Five Families, a social title that will work as an empire building game, pitting player against player in an MMO experience few have been able to deliver. To Kabam, this was a major undertaking that simply could not be ignored.
“We felt there was an opportunity for a true massively multiplayer online game,” said executive producer Larry Koh.
With over 4.8 million users of Facebook registered as ‘fans’ of the Godfather game, there is still a major potential to attract the larger userbase of the entirety of Facebook. Kabam hopes to bring that in with the power of the Godfather franchise coupled with a truly remarkable gaming experience for the social platform.
“We want this game to be very authentic,” said Koh, who previously worked on The Godfather games at Electronic Arts. “We’re taking our players back to 1930s New York.”
“Our ability to make this different from other crime games is based on pushing heavily on synchronous play,” continued Koh.
Simply put, the major problem is dealing with the Mafia Wars juggernaut, already pushing past 20 million monthly active users. A Zynga pedigree will be hard to topple, admits Kabam, but the race is going to be tight.
Kabam has opened up a closed beta that will begin in several weeks. Those interested can register for a chance to try the game out.
Kabam was founded in 2007, and has already seen major success with Kingdoms of Camelot, hitting 1.5 million monthly active users. The studio has been successful in acquiring funding, recently scoring $85 million for projects.
[Thanks VentureBeat]
