Namco releases Facebook arcade games
But Pac-Man/Dig Dug don't go down well.
Namco Bandai has released Facebook-compatible J2Play versions of arcade classics Pac-Man and Dig Dug, which burrow into the social networking site to record achievements and fill out leaderboards among other things.
The applications, which are accessible from Facebook's app pages (blue-word gateways: Pac-Man, Dig Dug), don't actually run within the browser though. Although they integrate with your profile pages and friends list, they are downloadable apps in the standard Windows fashion.
This has led to some concern among users. "Such an epic fail" and "Why should I have to download anything?" are two of the kinder comments on the Pac-Man page. There's also anger that the full versions of each game cost USD 9.99, with only limited demos available for free.
Silicon Valley Mercury News reports that Namco plans to release additional Facebook-compatible games in future. Let's hope it's paying attention to feedback.