Namco Bandai has announced the appointment of Jonathan Kromrey as general manager of its new Apple Games division.
He's well qualified too, having previously worked at Apple as an iPod and iPhone games producer and designer. His new role will involve piloting Namco's internal iPhone development as well as recruiting external developers.
“We are preparing to usher in a new generation of games that capitalise on changing consumer preferences, like 'anywhere' gaming and social games,” he says. Namco is looking to bump up the innovation in its iPhone games, using features like voice recognition, peer-to-peer multiplayer and Facebook Connect.
Kromrey tells MocoNews that Namco plans to span a range of iPhone price points, from pick-up-and-play 99-cent games to richer $9.99 titles. However, he says there are no plans to experiment with ad-funded games.
“We’re trying to launch games with feature sets that take full advantage of the capabilities of each Apple device,” he says. “The only challenge we really have is how to be able to successfully put out as many games as we have in our heads.”
The name of Namco's new division is intriguing, too, calling it Apple Games. There's persistent speculation that Apple will launch a tablet device with gaming capabilities this Autumn, and there have also been rumours that it may take its Apple TV device down a gaming road too.
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Besides working on iPhone and iPod touch in his time at Apple, Kromrey worked on unspecified Apple TV projects, according to Namco's announcement of his appointment.
