Monster Galaxy getting the big screen treatment

What do Angry Birds and Monster Galaxy have in common, aside from being immensely successful casual games featuring adorable critters? It turns out that Gaia Online is taking a note from Rovio’s playbook, and is gearing up for a movie adaptation based on their hit Facebook title.

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What do Angry Birds and Monster Galaxy have in common, aside from being immensely successful casual games featuring adorable critters? It turns out that Gaia Online is taking a note from Rovio’s playbook, and is gearing up for a movie adaptation based on their hit Facebook title.

The feature-length animated movie will be produced by Radar Pictures (known for films like Bad Teacher and Zathura), though it’s not specified whether the film will feature animation of the traditional 2D or the more common 3D variety. What is certain, though, is that this is the first time a Facebook game has received a movie adaptation.

Additionally, Radar Pictures doesn’t normally do straight-to-DVD projects, so it sounds like this project may actually make it all the way to theaters around the world. That said, this seems like a surprising subject to turn into a movie, based on Monster Galaxy’s waning popularity.

Monster Galaxy was, at one point, one of the most popular games on Facebook, with almost 20 million monthly active users. Since then, its user numbers have dropped like a stone, down to just under 2 million monthly active users and only 200,000 daily active users.

However, a film adaptation may actually be the shot in the arm that the brand needs to get back into the public eye. The Monster Galaxy game cribs a lot of notes from Nintendo’s insanely popular Pokémon franchise, which regularly churns out movies along with its games, all of which make money hand over fist.

[via Inside Social Games]

Mike Thompson has worked each side of the video game industry, both reporting on and creating narrative content for games. In his free time, he gorges on pizza, referees for roller derby, and uploads ridiculous cat photos to the internet.