Cooking Fever gets a dash of the world’s top soccer club to widen its appeal

If you’ve ever wanted to serve a stadium dog to Lionel Messi, you’re about to get the opportunity.

Cooking Fever, a mobile kitchen-sim game for iOS and Android, is getting an update this month that has players running a restaurant inside the stadium of Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona, which is the best team in Europe. Developer Nordcurrent secured the deal to enable gamers to feel like they are cooking up meals for fans of the sports franchise and even some of the players. Updates like these have helped Cooking Fever surpass more than 50 million downloads. It’s among the top 100 highest-grossing iPhone games in the United States, and it’s in the top 50 in the U.K., according to data firm App Annie. Now, with FC Barcelona, it could capture even more of the $30 billion mobile-gaming business.

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GamesBeat interviewed Nordcurrent communications boss Ricardas Jascemskas at the Casual Connect Europe even in Amsterdam last month to talk about the deal. He explained that the app gives players the chance to feel like they are working at a busy sporting event.

“When you open the app, you’ll see the Barcelona stadium,” he said. “And you’ll sell meals as well as branded items like T-shirts. But the coolest thing is that we’ll have players.”

Featured players include Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Neymar Jr, Gerard Piqué, and Andrés Iniesta. This will lend the star power that Nordcurrent is hoping will bring in more male players from around the world. At the same time, the soccer club is hoping to expose its brand to more women.

“From our point, it’s a very different audience. It’s usually women who play the game,” said Jascemskas. “From their perspective, they get a way to bring women to the Barcelona brand.”