A year ago, Mpowerplayer launched the Mplayit Mobile Arcade app for Facebook which allowed users to play and buy Java-powered mobile games through the social network. Now, in 2010, games developer Namco Bandai is doing the same with its announcement, last week, of Namco Arcade. Having teamed up with the veteran, Mpowerplayer’s Mplayit, Namco is hoping to increase the sales of its non-smartphone titles using the behemoth social network‘s 350+ million users.

The application is made up of preview versions of Namco’s major mobile titles including Pac-Man, Time Crisis Elite, Inspector Gadget, Zoo Keeper, Rolling With Katamari, and a myriad of others, totaling 18.

As far as play goes, it is similar, in respect to the Mplayit Mobile Arcade app in the sense that the user interface is designed like your more common mobile phone. Players make use of the digital phone’s keys as well as the keyboard and mouse in a sort of rudimentary emulation of how they might play on one’s cell. In any case, the real point is that should the user enjoy the game, and wish to buy the full version, they merely have to enter their country and phone number. A text message will then be sent directly to the device where a mere confirmation is needed for the purchase.

Recent months have shown similar uses of Facebook to promote bigger games outside of the platform. Most recent was Sanrio Digital with its Hello Kitty Online tutorial application, but even the bigger players have come to bat on this with LucasArts and its simple Indiana Jones 2 app, as well as the gargantuan Electronic Arts with both Dante’s Inferno and Need For Speed Nitro.

Already, we have seen budding successes with these titles’ growth on Facebook in both our weekly top games and our weekly top emerging games (both based on monthly active users). That said, we look forward to seeing how the new move pans out for Namco Bandai, and just who will be next to follow in these predecessors’ footsteps.

[image via Geek.com]