Aw, tartar sauce! Viacom today fed fan interest in the upcoming SpongeBob SquarePants massively multiplayer online game, including a longer list of countries it will be released in that still does not include the United States or Canada. An iOS mobile game is also now in the works.
According to this updated information, the free-to-play SpongeBob SquarePants MMOG will launch first in Taiwan in 2012 followed by rollout in multiple languages for players in China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and India. The third wave will extend the game to Europe, Russia and Latin America. Absorbent and yellow and porous is he, but so far SpongeBob’s pineapple isn’t coming to North American seas.
The potential audience is huge. SpongeBob has than 27 million fans on Facebook. Syndicated in 171 markets in 36 languages, SpongeBob SquarePants is the most widely distributed property in MTV Networks’ history.
Announced in June 2010, the SpongeBob SquarePants MMOG is the first Nickelodeon television property to be developed as an MMOG, and Viacom’s first to be developed outside of the United States. The game, which uses Unity Technologies’ Unity game engine, is part of a multi-year partnership between Viacom International Media Networks and Asian online games company GigaMedia Ltd.
The SpongeBob SquarePants creative team at the Burbank-based Nickelodeon Animation Studios has been working closely with GigaMedia and their development partner BlueArk Entertainment to develop the online environment and avatars, allowing players at all skill levels to create, customize and personalize their experience and to play as SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward and other characters.
