'Godfather' game builds Facebook buzz

Excitement is building on Facebook around a new game based on the classic Godfather series of films that is now available in closed Beta.

Excitement is building on Facebook around a new game based on the classic Godfather series of films that is now available in closed Beta.

The Facebook game is titled Godfather Five Families and is currently open for registration in closed Beta on the publisher's site, Kabam.com.

Excitement around the game has been building on Facebook, where over the past seven days the official Godfather Facebook page has attracted over 613,000 new fans, more than any other Facebook page apart from Back to the Future Trilogy, according to data from social media analysts Famecount.com.

The buzz surrounding the game on Facebook can be seen in a September 19 post on the Godfather Facebook page announcing that the game was open for registration in closed Beta. This single post, which read, 'The time has come to join one of the Five Families... who will you choose? Fight your way to the top of the ranks and become a Don now! Play now!' attracted nearly 5,000 likes, 361 comments and 233 shares in 16 hours.

The game is due to be released in full in autumn 2011 but as of yet no specific date has been announced.

The popularity of the Back to the Future Trilogy page on Facebook can be attributed to posts linking to auctions being held by Nike to win a pair of limited edition Nike Mag trainers. The trainers designed by Nike are based on those worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future 2 and all profits from the auctions go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

The top ten Facebook pages with the largest increase in fans over the week prior to September 20 according to Famecount.com are:

01. Back to the Future Trilogy (+675,153 fans this week)
02. The Godfather (+613,099 fans this week)
03. The Miami HEAT (+446,109 fans this week)
04. Music (+324,462 fans this week)
05. Angry Birds (+319,169 fans this week)
06. Facebook (+312,127 fans this week)
07. Texas Hold'em Poker (+302,879 fans this week)
08. Harry Potter (+297,785 fans this week)
09. Dunkin' Donuts (+279,352 fans this week)
10. Rihanna (+269,407 fans this week)