Sega Releases First Facebook Game

Sega of America announced the launch of Sega Play! Baseball, its first Facebook game and the first release from the publisher's new Sega Play! social brand. Sega Play! Baseball allows users to create, customize, and manage a baseball team. They can come up with their own team name and uniform, customize avatars, level up players' skills, and even build a ballpark with different items. Users can form teams out of their own created characters or recruit characters created by Facebook friends. They can can also pit their teams against each other in one-on-one matches or in a full season of league games (including a championship). The game's release comes as Sega prepares to launch another free-to-play baseball title, MLB Manager Online, which will be browser-based. It also plans to release Sega Play! Football on competing social network Hi5 soon. "We believe we have made a good start, and we will conduct management policies and updates as needed to create a game continuously loved by everyone," said Sega Corporation producer Takaya Segawa when the game first launched in Taiwan last November.