Bandai Namco reveals what this sum of activities and collaborations will be like to commemorate an icon of culture and entertainment.
Pac-Man turns 40 today, May 22. It is said soon, but the fact that he was one of the pioneers in consolidating the success of the video game as an intrinsic element to the popular culture of the eighties begins this Friday his fifth vital decade. And that has to be celebrated. Bandai Namco Entertainment has announced its celebration plan for this 40th anniversary; that will feature not only activities, the video that leads this news, offers and collaborations, but also new video games.
An icon that devours records in video games
Far is that Pac-Man Fever song as a consequence of the character’s success in arcade games since 1980. From there, a multitude of releases and actions within the marketing world in the 80s and 90s. Needless to say, it has its repercussions in the world of video games, with countless adaptations and derivatives beyond being the classic eater. According to different analyzes, the character has a recognition rate of 90% worldwide. Therefore, Bandai Namco has an established plan for the immediate future in leisure that unites us.
Games and series, plan for 2020
For starters, they will release new Pac-Man video games; the first of them, Pac-Man Live Studio for Twitch, a game created in collaboration with Amazon Games. It is a multiplayer title where up to 4 people will compete in a maze to see who is capable of eating more (of course, we can also eat each other). Only one will survive. It will be possible to create our own Pac-Man mazes and share them with other friends; even play classic Pac-Man.
On the other hand, fans of the most classic arcade experience should know that a special machine “Tastemakers 40th Anniversary Arcade 1UP” will be released in 2020, along with the Counter-cade, Party Cade and Head-to-Head versions of the 40th. anniversary. Finally, in late 2020 other new PAC-MAN games will be released. We will know more details soon.
But there is more: PAC-MAN is also back with PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Snack Attack, a new episode of the PAC-MAN Stories series available on Amazon’s Alexa platform. “The game tells an interactive story in which children and parents make decisions to advance the adventure,” they indicate. It will be published this summer for Amazon Alexa, in English, in territories such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and India.
Art, Music and Advanced AI Book
We continue with a new 40th-anniversary book from Cook & Becker, which will look back on the creation of Pac-Man and how it has evolved until this 40th anniversary. When it comes to merchandising, Bandai Namco Entertainment has reached an agreement with Numskull for a new line of Pac-Man products under the seal of his fortieth birthday. Remarkably, a very limited edition (256 units) of the 40th anniversary of the original arcade machine in Quarter Arcades format, signed by Toru Iwatani (the original creator of PAC-MAN). Those who cannot get hold of it may opt for a basic edition of the same machine and other commemorative items.
We are nearing the end, not without first mentioning Pac-Man’s involvement in the advanced AI investigations that Nvidia is captaining. “Having learned 50,000 games from the game, this powerful new AI model created by NVIDIA Research, and which goes by the name of GameGAN, can generate a fully functional version of PAC-MAN without the need for a game engine,” we read in the notice. “That implies that this AI can recreate the game with compelling results even despite not understanding the fundamental rules of a video game.”
