Namco appears to be shutting down its various Facebook games as of March 19, 2013.
The developer known for its classic arcade and mainstream video games has a small selection of social titles available on Facebook. Each of these games, Pac-Man S, Rally-X S, Dig Dug S and Letter Labyrinth S are all based on older IP. However, when one goes to Pac-Man S, the following message pops up when the game loads.
Rally-X S, Dig Dug S and Letter Labyrinth S all contain similar messages revealing the games will go down on March 19. Our traffic-tracking service AppData reveals the reason these games are all being closed: None of them have much traffic. Indeed, between all its games, AppData estimates Namco only has 4,285 daily active users (the best measurement of a core audience).
Even though Namco’s classic arcade IP has a devoted following among the generation that grew up with it, these titles never really took off on Facebook. AppData shows Pac-Man S peaked early in its cycle with a little over 18,000 DAU immediately after it launched in June 2011. None of Namco’s other games even cracked 10,000 DAU at their highest traffic points.What will be interesting to see is if Namco tries to cycle in any of its other IP to take the place of these titles. The company has a robust mobile catalog with a wide variety of games that appeal to classic, core and casual gamers.
We’re attempting to get in touch with Namco for a comment. Developing.
