National Geographic Global Media on Tuesday announced the launch of National Geographic Games (NGG), a new business unit that is creating games for multiple platforms, including the Mac and iPhone.

NGG will work with game publishers and developers to create games based on National Geographic's core themes and media properties, the company announced. As part of that effort, NGG announced that it has partnered with Namco Bandai Games America and Sony Computer Entertainment to bring new titles to market. Namco Bandai has brought several of its own game properties to the iPhone and iPod platforms.

The first title to be released is "Herod's Lost Tomb," a downloadable game for the Mac, iPhone and Windows that can also be played online through the National Geographic Channel's Web site. The game, featuring content from the December 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine, features information about the biblical figure King Herod.

Other titles coming in November include "National Geographic: Panda" and "National Geographic: Africa." December will bring "Sudoku Traveler: China." And releases planned for 2009 include "Rain Forests," "Greencity" and "From the Bottom Up."

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