We love PAC-MAN. Who doesn’t?
At first, I worried Nex Playground’s motion control would make PAC-MAN worse.
The Control
How do you create something better than the original joystick control? Is that even possible?
I was ready to give up and began brainstorming whether we should turn it into a 3D first-person maze game instead.
Luckily, my team sat me down.
They said PAC-MAN is fun because of a few key elements. You see the whole map. You strategize in your head where PAC-MAN should go. You make split-second decisions to avoid getting caught. You time the Power Pellets to maximize their impact. And you understand the ghosts and learn what they will do. (Did you know Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde all behave differently?)
The worst thing we could do was make a game that didn’t feel like PAC-MAN at all.
So we bit the bullet.
And soon after that, we found the fun.
Your arm is the joystick. Just point where you want PAC-MAN to go.
Oh man, it’s intuitive.
That one-sentence instruction is how I taught dozens of partners and reporters to play the game with me at Gamescom in Cologne and Tokyo Game Show.
And it converted even the harshest critics.
“Yeah, it works.”
That was the conclusion. Everybody had fun.
Multi-Generational IP
PAC-MAN is a cross-generational IP created in 1980. In 2026, it turned 46.
Grandparents play. Parents play. Kids play.
Few things connect people like something we all know. The shared memories. The secret tips passed from one generation to another.
PAC-MAN can bring families together.
Multiplayer
And we pushed it further.
Nex Playground tracks up to four players at the same time. Single camera. No additional equipment. It’s a rare ability. We had to make the most of it.
So we made PAC-MAN multiplayer.
On top of the Classic mode everyone knows and loves, we worked with Bandai Namco (the IP owner) and Amber (our studio partner) to introduce two brand-new modes: Showdown and Team Chomp.
Showdown is battle royale. Team Chomp is co-op.
Soon after the game launched, families started telling us about the laughter. Our version of PAC-MAN was bringing their families together. Siblings communicated and worked together in ways their parents said only happened once in a blue moon.
Built with Intention
PAC-MAN on Nex is a perfect example of how we build with intention.
Get families off the couch. Bring them together. Be a catalyst for growth. And do it with loads of fun.
Oh, did you know we call the “e” in the Nex logo the “e-guy”? It has a mouth, so naturally, it can chomp, too!
Putting our e-guy and PAC-MAN together in the welcome animation put a BIG smile on my face.
Now my daughter is asking me for another round.
Chomp!
I did NOT know all the ghosts behave differently. I want to pop back to my childhood to see if I could actually beat my brother at Pac-Man with that important detail! Congrats on giving new lives to a classic. :)