EA Mobile continues free-to-play push with The Simpsons: Tapped Out

EA Mobile's been steadily getting into freemium games with titles such as Theme Park and The Sims FreePlay during 2011.

Now it's going from something even more mass market with The Simpsons: Tapped Out.

The licence should ensure the launch is a success, although previous mobile Simpsons' games haven't always impressed in terms of their quality.

Hopefully, the company's new experience in the genre, not to mention acquisitions such as Bight Games, which developed the lucrative Trade Winds free-to-play game for Z2Live, means it will hit the target this time.

As for the game itself - and no developer has been announced - it has you rebuilding Springfield following a Homer-induced nuclear explosion.

More playable characters will be unlocked as you level up, with donuts being the soft in-game currency used to buy items. There'll likely be a hard currency too, but that's not yet been revealed.

"We want this to be one of the biggest titles this year," Bernard Kim, senior vice president of global publishing for social and mobile for EA, told CNET.

"We've invested a lot. It's absolutely a top-tier development priority for us."

Due for release as a universal app for iPhone and iPad in March, an Android version will also be released, a couple of months later.

[source: CNET]