“Gather ’round, family! The Simpsons are going freemium!” Regardless of whether or not you feel that The Simpsons are past their sell-by date (the show just recently aired its 500th episode), it’s hard ignore the news that EA is developing a freemium Simpsons title for iOS. It’s also hard not to immediately fall in love with the premise for the game.
“Gather ’round, family! The Simpsons are going freemium!” Regardless of whether or not you feel that The Simpsons are past their sell-by date (the show just recently aired its 500th episode), it’s hard ignore the news that EA is developing a freemium Simpsons title for iOS. It’s also hard not to immediately fall in love with the premise for the game.
Homer causes an accident at the nuclear power plant, and Springfield is subsequently totaled. The player must rebuild the city from the ground-up with the help of The Simpsons‘ cast of millions (they’re all OK).
Indeed, the game–titled The Simpsons: Tapped Out—sounds like it plays similarly to Smurfs’ Village, except Smurfs’ Village doesn’t have Duffman, Hans Moleman, Moe’s Tavern, or nuclear disasters. But maybe it should.
EA says it’s putting a lot of time and effort into the development process for The Simpsons: Tapped Out, which includes input from the show’s writers and voice actors. “We want this to be one of the biggest titles this year,” says EA’s Senior Vice President of Global Publishing for Social and Mobile Titles, Bernard Kim. “We’ve invested a lot. It’s absolutely a top-tier development priority for us.
“Hardcore Simpsons fans will get a lot out of it,” adds Kim.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out is a universal app, meaning players can carry their progress on Neo Springfield (not the official city name) from their iPhone to their iPad. The game will be free to download and play, though aspiring mayors have the option to buy the game’s virtual currency–“doughnuts”–via microtransactions.
There’s no set release date for The Simpsons: Tapped Out, but EA has confirmed that an Android version of the game is in the works, and will be released a few months after the iOS version hits the App Store.
In the meantime, if you see a white flash, drop to the curb and start dreaming about the new Springfield that you’ll help build from the ashes. As Principal Skinner once chuckled, “They called me old-fashioned for teaching the duck-and-cover method, but who’s laughing now?”
[via CNET]
