New Boyz: The World is a virtual world social game hybrid built around New Boyz rap duo of Ben-J and Legacy. Launched on May 2 just ahead of the group’s new album release, The World is a promotional vehicle developed by Funtactix in conjunction with Warner Brothers for Facebook.

New Boyz: The World asks players to create human avatars inside a modern-themed setting where they can interact with other fans via chat or with animated emotes, like dancing. Beyond that, players get simple delivery and collection quests from the rap duo (as non-player characters), play mini-games, watch music videos and get a chance to preview soon-to-be-released music. Players will also get a chance to chat with Ben-J and Legacy during live events.

New Boyz: The World monetizes with the sale of premium currency, New Boyz cash, which is used to buy clothing for your avatar and a premium dance move. Whatever you can’t buy with New Boyz cash in-game is free. As players explore the world or play mini-games, they are also treated to New Boyz music as a sort of soft currency. Additionally, mini-games are themed to New Boyz music; such as Piggy Bank Smash, where players click on targets to smash a piggy bank while New Boyz single “Break My Bank” plays in the background.

The interesting concept New Boys: The World introduces to Facebook is the exclusive digital release of albums in-game. Funtactix and Warner Bros. announced the exclusive release of Too Cool To Care in New Boyz: The World less than a week after the game went live, so it’s difficult to determine how much of the first week growth in monthly active users can be attributed to the album itself. Furthermore, we’re not sure how many users the game will direct to physical purchases of the album outside of the game. New Boyz: The World currently has 20,000 MAU while the New Boyz official fan page has over 2 million Likes. For the time being, the in-game album feature is the only way fans can act as consumers of the album. Players who preview the album in-game receive New Boyz cash to customize their characters.

New Boyz’ Too Cool to Care is on sale in physical form as of today. You can track New Boyz: The World’s progress on AppData, our traffic tracking service for social games and developers.