Megaband Gets Players to Tune in, Hits the Charts

Launched in November of last year, Megaband from Ubisoft puts players in charge of their own band, tasking them with rising from an aspiring garage start-up to an international sensation. The title made ISG’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games for the week of July 27. According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Megaband currently has 132,413 monthly active users and 18,006 daily active users. In Megaband, players create avatars for up to six band members, starting with one and unlocking more as they level up by gaining experience points. After picking a name for their band, dressing up its first member and choosing an instrument (guitar, drums, keyboard, vocals) players must rehearse before playing a gig. During rehearsal, players’ avatars have “mega needs” -- clicking on the avatar initiates a simple matching game, with rewards given for finding and matching as many similar tiles as possible under a time limit. After the rehearsal has finished, players can choose from several venues, such as a concert hall and disco, in which to play their main gig. The game offers multiple songs in several music genres to “play.” Once a song has been chosen, the gig begins. Players place their band members on stage and the music starts, at which point the audience begins throwing various items (ice cream cones, underwear and other oddities) on-stage. Clicking these items rewards the player with experience points. Crowd surfers and other, stranger “guest characters” will also appear in the audience and can be clicked for XP. The player has a “Rock Out Bar” that is filled while rehearsing and can be spent to boost the amount of XP gathered by clicking the various objects that appear on-screen. In addition to clothing and accessories for their band avatars, players must also purchase décor for their pads. Depending on the items purchase and placed, players receive boosts to their attack and defense stats that come into play when accessing the Battle Center. This portion of the game allows players to go up against others playing the game in a simple stats-based battle that requires no direct interaction. The winner comes away with a reward of cash and XP. Expanding the player’s pad also extends their stamina, which allows them to play more gigs before needing to wait for it to refill, or purchasing more. Players can recruit friends to join their bands, and also make them neighbors, which serves to increase their health for Battle Center matchups and allows them to visit one another’s pads to collect bonus XP. The game also lets players brag about their accomplishments through viral channels and send/receive gifts. Megaband is monetized through the purchase of pad items, avatar extras and various methods of speeding up tasks in-game. Facebook Credits can be spent to purchase Band Cash, the game’s soft currency, and Mega Credits, its premium currency. Some items and actions can only be purchased using Mega Credits -- like the ability to skip rehearsals. As of press time, Ubisoft could not be reached for comment on future plans for Megaband. We observe, however, that the game appears to be in "official launch" mode now that the MAU and DAU are rapidly rising. Ubisoft has not maintained a presence on the game's Wall. You can follow Megaband’s progress using AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.

Social Pro Daily

Megaband Gets Players to Tune in, Hits the Charts

Randy Nelson

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Randy Nelson