National Geographic Plugs Into Video Games

By Geoff Duncan November 18, 2008

National Geographic Plugs Into Video Games

National Geographic&mdashlworld-renowned, more than a century old, and one of the largest non-profit educational and scientific organizations on the planet—has announced it’s diving into the 21st century by forming National Geographic Games, a new division that, in conjunction with Bandai and Sony Computer Entertainment, will release family-friendly gaming titles based on National Geographic’s primary themes and media content. The titles will span consoles, mobile devices, portable game units, and online properties, and the first title—Herod’s Lost Tomb—is due this month.

Some of the game titles—like Herod’s Lost Tomb—will be developed in-house, while others—like forthcoming National Geographic: Panda and National Geographic: Africa—will rely on partnerships with outside developers, The group plans to launch games for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network, PCs, and mobile devices like the iPhone. Herod’s Lost Tomb will be a free download for PC, Mac, and iPhone, and a Flash-enabled version is available online. All the games will support National Geographic’s mission of motivating people to care about the Earth.

National Geographic has tapped former Take-Two Interactive and Bethesda Softworks executive Chris Mate to head up the games group.

“The launch of our games division furthers National Geographic Venture’s cross-platform strategy of creating and distributing unique consumer experiences and content on multiple platforms and devices,” said National Geographic Ventures COO Ted Prince, in a statement.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Gaming

The Sims 4 devs form new team to address the game’s long list of issues

A woman Sim fixing a boiler next to a male Sim in the Sims 4 For Rent expansion.

The Sims 4 may be hitting its 10th birthday soon, but the developers at Maxis are still working to update and fix the game. This time, it's with the help of a new team that will focus specifically on these core issues.

The developers posted a statement on the Sims X (formerly Twitter) account Thursday announcing the move, which they hope will "be able to increase both the number of fixes and the frequency with which we ship these batched updates."

Gaming

The best FPS games

Deathloop main characters

There are countless genres of video game genres to get lost in -- but one of the most popular is the first-person shooter (FPS). Spanning decades of unforgettable hits, the FPS genre is home to beloved classics that have sent us to space, to creepy houses in the bayou, mysterious underwater cities, and even head-to-head against other skilled players online. It's a genre that is so much more than just shooting your foes.

Because there are so many to choose from, it can be daunting to make a selection for which ones to play. Many of the older FPS games are harder to get back into, while some of the newer ones might feel incomplete or are riddled with unfriendly loot boxes to purchase. Not to worry, though, as this list will go through the absolute best FPS games of all time, ranging from the N64 all the way to today.

Gaming

3 Netflix games you can play with your subscription this weekend (May 24-26)

Sonic, Tails, and their pals stand side by side in Sonic Mania Plus.

Did you know that if you have a Netflix subscription, you have access to a pretty fantastic library of games right now?

Over the past few years, Netflix's gaming efforts have slowly paid off. The subscription service has built up a strong roster of both original games and modern classics that subscribers can play at no extra charge. If you haven't checked the list of available games in a while, you might be surprised to see that you can play games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge and Hades right now without spending any extra money.