National Geographic charts games division

Considering the amount of horse, monkey, and kitten games flooding the handheld market, it wasn't all that surprising when Namco Bandai announced in April that it would be developing a Nintendogs-esque Nintendo DS title devoted to pandas. What was surprising, however, was that the venerable anthropological media company National Geographic Society would be funding the game.

As Namco Bandai's Panda game lumbers onto retails shelves this month, National Geographic Ventures is ready to make game development a full-time gig. The entertainment arm of the National Geographic Society announced today the formation of National Geographic Games, a division created to develop and publish games on all gaming consoles and handhelds, as well as online and mobile platforms.

Current NGV senior vice president Paul Levine will head up the company's game label. National Geographic has tapped former Take-Two and Bethesda Softworks exec Chris Mate to serve as the label's general manager, overseeing the daily operations at the studio.

In its first order of business, NGG said today that it has partnered with Namco Bandai and Sony Computer Entertainment to publish and distribute games for the Wii, DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network, PC, and mobile devices. The Namco Bandai partnership presumably entails the aforementioned National Geographic: Panda. NGG's Sony collaboration will begin with National Geographic: Africa, due out for unspecified platforms this month.

NGG also announced Herod's Lost Tomb, a cross-promotional title that ties in to the December 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine as well as a feature broadcast on the National Geographic Channel. The game will be available this month for the PC, Mac, and iPhone. A free Flash version can be had through the media company's Web site.

As the last order of business, NGG also provided a brief look at its upcoming slate. The gamemaker expects to publish Sudoku Traveler: China in December, with Rainforests, Green City, and From the Bottom Up all expected to arrive sometime in 2009 for unspecified platforms.