Spartacus enters Facebook territory

4 Jan 2011

Starz Digital is to launch the TV series Spartacus as a social game on Facebook this Thursday.

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena will have its beta launch on Thursday, 6 January on Facebook, with the test game up for grabs for the first 10,000 fans who register on Facebook.

The official public launch date is destined for 20 January, the day before the Spartacus prequel premieres on Starz. An iPad multimedia script app for the Spartacus Starz original series will also be launched on 17 January.

The social-media gaming publisher 6wave will help launch the social game on Facebook. With more than 75 million monthly active users, 6waves is one of the largest social-gaming publishers worldwide. Its published games include Mall World, Kingdoms of Camelot and Ravenwood Fair.

“Given its powerful characters and larger-than-life storylines, few television properties have as much potential for innovative social game play as does Spartacus,” said Marc DeBevoise, senior vice-president, digital media, business development and strategy for Starz Media.

“We are excited to make our social media gaming debut and be one of the early networks to bring a branded TV property to the social gaming universe.” 

The Spartacus iPad script application will be a free download for iPad users in the iTunes Starz storefront, with the first episode of Spartacus: Blood and Sand (The Red Serpent) included as part of the app download. Additional Spartacus multimedia iPad episode scripts will be available for individual purchase for $0.99 each.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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