To pick up Fast Five on Blu-ray, DVD at Walmart, better try Car Town

Car Town Fast Five
Branded Facebook game promotions are a dime a dozen these days, but turning a Facebook game into a store front? Now, that's something to twirl the mustache at. Cie Games announced that Car Town was the only place Fast Five fans could pre-order the Fast Five Blu-ray/DVD combo pack at Walmart. But since the movie released today in stores, fans can also take a trip to Walmart to score some in-game rewards.

Within Car Town, players could click on a giant Walmart-themed big rig to pre-order the pack through Walmart's online store, which would have scored them an exclusive in-game locker with a Fast Five-themed bullet-proof vest to display in their garages. Though, anyone who buys the game through Car Town or in stores will net themselves a virtual Armet Gurkha armored vehicle to race their friends with.

This is the culmination of a six month-long event made possible by Universal Partnerships & Licensing that displayed the movie's trailer within Car Town. And now players can complete missions inspired by the movie's storyline by racing cars directly taken from the film. And Car Town, which enjoys over 5.2 million monthly players, has had its branding throughout the Fast Five release.

"This program is one of the most extensive and successful efforts to date by a major film studio to leverage the nexus between real-world marketing and promotion via social gaming," said Cie Games CEO Justin Choi. "Since the program began in April 2011, Car Town players have completed more than 200 million races in the virtual Rio de Janeiro race environment modeled after the movie's key location."

In other words, this was one giant Facebook game branding event, and Cie Games is far from the only developer that's in on the action. Zynga has already begun to integrate Indiana Jones into its Adventure World completely, while other studios like Ecko|Code build their business entirely around branded Facebook games. We've said it before and we'll say it again: Branding is huge in Facebook games. Our concern, however, is whether the games can grow in terms of gameplay amidst the allure of branding.

If Pawn Stars works on Facebook, Storage Wars will feel right at home

What the hey, let's throw Parking Wars on their too while we're at it--oh, never mind. It's official, folks: Now that Storage Wars has made it to Facebook after just a single season on A&E, reality TV has staked its claim in social gaming. The game based on the popular--though, we can't understand why--TV show hits Facebook today as the second season premieres tonight on A&E. (With Pawn Stars still kicking, this is A&E's second Facebook game.)

In Storage Wars on Facebook, players join animated versions of characters from the show in high-stakes bidding wars on things in folks' storage units. Players travel around the world in-game to bid on various relics with virtual cash in order to earn more digital bucks to bid on more things. It sounds like a boring vicious cycle, but ultimately players will go all-in for Wanted Treasures that come with huge profits.

"Storage Wars fans have shown that they are eager to get in on the bidding action themselves and our new game for Facebook lets them do just that," said A+E Networks SVP of Games Kris Soumas in a release. "We've put the same emphasis on developing a fun and addictive game experience that A&E brings to its program development."
Gallery: Storage Wars on Facebook
Based on these first screen shots, the game looks to pack numerous storage units with items to bid for inside. More importantly, however, players are guided through the game with none other than quests, or folks craving for Wanted Treasures. But what about our Wanted Treasure, Mario Kart on Facebook?

Click here to play Storage Wars on Facebook Now >

Are you a fan of Storage Wars on A&E? What do you think of the rampant growth of branded games on Facebook?