Eurogamer is reporting that Alien vs. Predator developer Rebellion has officially opened a Social Gaming division at the studio. Rebellion just recently developed a Facebook version of Evil Genius and CEO Jason Kinglsey explained that its success has turned their attention to producing similar titles.

"One thing that has become increasingly apparent over the last few years is that gamers can't be defined as just people who own consoles - people who use social media like Facebook or use smartphones all play games and this is an exciting new opportunity that we want to explore," explained Kingsley.  It’s very much same speech we’ve all been hearing about Social Gaming including the bit about “produce(ing) games that reach new players who would never consider themselves to be gamers” which was offered up by another official at the studio.

Considering that Rebellion’s last two major releases, Alien vs. Predator and Rouge Warrior, arrived to less than critical acclaim this may be a way for the studio to recoup some of those losses or find another sector of revenue.  I still feel like Rebellion has a lot to offer as a development house for major titles and I hope that their venture into social gaming isn’t a foundational shift, but rather a way for them to get some new lifeblood into the company.

Rebellion’s next major console release is called NeverDead. A release date is still to be announced.

 

Comments

  • Avatar
    inthenameofharmon
    13 years, 9 months ago

    lol social gaming. this should be renamed Facestab then. Whatevs, as long as its not an mmo...

  • Avatar
    Breakspeed
    13 years, 9 months ago

    I think this just serves to make our hobby appeal more to the general public - if you've enjoyed a virtual game of any type it might not be too far off to be able to relate to core gamers.

  • Avatar
    jon2435
    13 years, 9 months ago

    I want to see better social gaming. So far nothing has come close enough to a core gaming experience. As with a lot of genres many have to get it wrong for someone to get it right.

  • Avatar
    Comradebearjew
    13 years, 9 months ago

    I really don't think this will end well.

  • Avatar
    AngryPersonWithPitchFork14
    13 years, 9 months ago

    The only people who should be rebelling is this companies remaining fanbase. These people deserve to be fed to a Xenomorph after what they did to Alien vs Predator.

  • Avatar
    Zocano
    13 years, 9 months ago

    I have a fair bit of animosity towards 'Social Gaming' so I'm not really supporting their shift. Yet, as a company, I understand why they would do that, especially after two not-so-amazing games.

  • Avatar
    Hegs94
    13 years, 8 months ago

    This is an interesting, and kinda scary, precedent we're seeing. I really want social gaming to die, but with the way the economy and the success Zynga is having I can see a lot more companies going down this road.