National Geographic charts games division

Media company follows up Namco Bandai Panda game partnership with full-fledged publishing and development label.

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.

23 Comments

  • Merl57

    Posted Nov 20, 2008 6:51 am PT

    Nate Geo is one of my favorite channels on TV but I don't see them making games that will get above an 8.5 anytime soon

  • Dan-21

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 7:53 pm PT

    If it wasent for this... we would never get Afrika release on the west.

    plus, releasing the game with the NG name attach to it will only help it!

    Now give me aquanauts holiday NG!

  • Media_Mind

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 7:10 pm PT

    noooooo

  • paperwarior17

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 2:33 pm PT

    Heh, NGG. What a board.

  • Josepiphus

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 1:54 pm PT

    @frazzle

    I've spent over 3 years of my life in China. I've traveled in japan south korea and thailand. I admit it was a broad generalization. It was intended as a joke. But I will say that there is definitely some truth to it. Perhaps you should travel some.

  • HylianHeart

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 11:30 am PT

    I love National Geographic and I will certainly be keeping an eye out in the game stores for their games.

  • Staryoshi87

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 11:18 am PT

    Edutainment games are awesome, but they haven't been done well since Sim City, Civilization, Mario is Missing, Sim Isle, and the like.

  • tonicmole

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 10:39 am PT

    Dang, the PS 3 gets all of the good exclusives! hahahahahaha

  • Bgrngod

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 10:12 am PT

    Could this be the company that finally does a remake of The Oregon Trail game?

    Only time will tell....

  • bigsolid88

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 7:59 am PT

    National Geographic? come on!!!! not funny!!!!!!

  • Bobzfamily

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 7:52 am PT

    Hooray! I can end ah "how do elephants hump" game to my Wii collection!!

  • Generic_Dude

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 6:05 am PT

    With a name as respected and strong as Nat'l Geographic, it's unfortunate that they're probably only going to peddling shovelware.

  • shadowblade99

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 5:07 am PT

    How'd I guess that poop like this would end up on the Wii and DS first.

  • frazzle00

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 3:56 am PT

    @Josepiphus

    Your lack of knowledge about Asian people amazes me. Perhaps you should travel a bit more. Expand your knowledge of the world before posting garbage like that.

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 3:52 am PT

    Mark my words, companies like national Geographic could be very big in a future world of casual gamers!

  • TehUndeadHorror

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 3:07 am PT

    Panda!

  • xdeiri

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 12:40 am PT

    genius but a little late

  • runstalker

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 8:37 pm PT

    I played the import PS3/PSN game 'AFRIKA' and, well, it's strangely soothing. And often beautiful.

  • josef8

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 8:16 pm PT

    meh

  • kcweezkid

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 8:02 pm PT

    this seems like a disaster, who funds things like this?

  • dmfreak

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 6:44 pm PT

    sheesh i loved watching national geographic channel for their documentaries (especially air crash investigation which is my favorite) but i doubt their game will be a success.

  • robfield

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 6:00 pm PT

    Apparently they didn't get the news about Brash Entertainment.

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