GDC 2011: Zynga Partners with Paramount for Rango FrontierVille Promotion
Johnny Depp's new movie is getting a lot of video game tie-ins
SAN FRANCISCO, California -- Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies and Zynga have partnered to promote the new Johnny Depp movie Rango. The March 4 computer animated movie will be marketed in-game on one of Zynga’s popular Facebook games, FrontierVille, starting today. The week-long promotion will lead up to the theatrical realse of the new family film, which takes a new look at the Western genre made popular in the Oscar-nominated True Grit. Rango is also getting new games of his own from THQ for consoles and portables, as well as an online game world from Paramount.
FrontierVille’s more than 15 million daily players (according to AppData) will be challenged with three Rango related tasks leading them through the game’s untamed wilderness. Players must findRango, whose chameleon skills allow him to blend into the frontier, encourage their friends to send them ten water buckets, and view the film’s trailer in advance of the film’s release. Players will receive a Rangostatue to add to their homestead on FrontierVille as a reward for completing the mission.
“We're committed to building the best user experiences for the hundreds of millions of people playing Zynga games each month," said Manny Anekal, global director of brand advertising at Zynga. "The Rangocampaign offers a fun way to interact with the film's characters while enhancing game-play withinFrontierVille."
”We are continuously looking for new and innovative ways to create interactive experiences for our movie-going audiences. Given Zynga’s proven success building fun and engaging games, bringing Rango toFrontierVille seemed like a natural fit,” said Amy Powell, Paramount’s executive vice president of Interactive Marketing and Film Production.
This announcement comes on the heels of recent Zynga partnerships with Sony Pictures Entertainment’s The Green Hornet within the popular Mafia Wars game and DreamWorks Animations’ Megamind, where Megamind launched his very own “Mega-Farm,” within FarmVille. In the 24-hour promotion period more than 9 million people engaged with the “Mega-Farm.”
Bookmark/Search this post with
About the Author
John Gaudiosi
Editor-in-Chief
John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Forbes.com, NVISION, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Geek Monthly, PrimaGames.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. and has produced videogame documentaries for The History Channel and Starz Entertainment. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.
Poll Question
GamerLive.TV newsletter
Like us on Facebook
Related Articles
- Namco Bandai Boldly Goes with New Trailer and Concept Art for Star Trek Game (100.0%)
- Disney Continues to Lead the Home Entertainment Industry with Blu-ray 3D (100.0%)
- Johnny Depp’s Fourth Pirates of the Caribbean Flick Earns $1 Billion Box Office Booty (100.0%)
- Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption Shows True Grit with Sales of 8.5 Million Copies (100.0%)
- 3D Boosts Pirates of the Caribbean’s Box Office Treasure with $90.1 Million Booty (100.0%)
- Johnny Depp and the Pirates of the Caribbean Set Sail at Disneyland (100.0%)
Popular content
Today's:
Latest Videos
