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You crazy for this one, Happy Giant: Jay-Z wants his Facebook game 'to be better than a Zynga game'
When Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter isn't busy keeping it real, he's got an empire to run. That means everything from his bread and butter (music production – it's perpetually Jay's "final album") to his assorted business ventures (everything from clothing to pro sports teams). And this week he added one more job to that list: game developer. Er ... not exactly. You see, Jay-Z has conscripted "high-end brand service" company Happy Giant to craft a Facebook game, entitled (fittingly enough): Empire.The game left closed beta this week, and we grabbed its creator, Happy Giant's Michael Levine, to discuss the game's famous progenitor, its mobile aspirations, and keeping it real. We're told that last one is pretty important to Mr. Carter."This is anything but a typical licensing deal," Levine said. Apparently, former Sony Music chairman Tommy Mottola is a partner in Levine's other business venture, a kid-focused virtual world known as "Planet Cazmo," and he proposed a meeting with Jay-Z's former lawyer. "A guy named – and this is his real name - Michael Guido," Levine said.From there, Guido introduced Happy Giant to Jay. "We really worked closely with them for the last nine months, with Jay and his team, just trying to make everything as authentic as possible." How authentic, you ask? Apparently to the point of contention over which rule set the cee-lo minigame would contain. Again, we're told Jay likes to keep it real.
