'The Hunger Games Adventures' Game Launches On Facebook

The Hunger Games has earned a big wad of cash at the box office, $152.5 million, in its opening weekend. But there's more money to be made off this infant franchise. To spur greater brand recognition and money-making opportunities, Lionsgate has released The Hunger Games Adventures, a role-playing game, for Facebook.

The Hunger Games Adventures launched today, March 30, and is open to the public for the first time ever. It currently has 40,000 monthly users according to stats from Facebook's suggestion bar. Funtactix, the maker of the game, said that 100,000 fans have logged into the game.

The Hunger Games Adventures was in beta-testing during the opening weekend of the movie and was released to die-hard fans only. Funtactix rolled out access to the game on Hunger Games fan sites before eventually letting everone play. The maker of the game promises to release several easter eggs within the game including an endorsed-by-the-author map of the world that the books and movie take place in, Panem.

This game is an opportunity for fans to experience this world beyond the books and the movie, said vice president of digital marketing at Lionsgate David Hayes in a Forbes interview. The game plays an important role in allowing us to bridge the time period between the DVD and Blu-ray releases and the theatrical release of Catching Fire.

Both Funtactix and Hayes have alluded to supporting the game for a long period of time: There are so many amazing opportunities and plans for this game, said Hayes in the Forbes report. A great example of how we can amplify the marketing through this game is the official map. This is something that fans have wanted to see for a year and a half. There are hundreds of fan maps that have been created, but there's only one official map from Suzanne and this game will reveal that over time.