Back in March, Finnish firm Rovio - a developer with only one hit to its name, even if that hit is the seemingly ubiquitous Angry Birds - took in $42 million in a funding round which even the investors admitted the company didn't actually need. It's not just in acquisitions that the figures are getting breath-takingly high, either - venture capitalists seem to have caught the fever too. The biggest fish in the pond, Zynga, bears a price tag as high as $10 billion according to some valuations. Those are just samples of the deals we know about, because they were made in public.
In the west, EA paid $300 million for PlayFish last year, while Disney paid $760 million for Playdom, and has been aggressively restructuring its entire games business around the social gaming model - with mixed results. Not to be outdone, DeNA's local rival GREE dropped over $100 million in cash on OpenFeint - creators of a social gaming platform for iPhone and Android. Last October, Japanese mobile gaming giant DeNA paid out up to $400 million for iOS game developer ngmoco - another great company with fantastic products whose price tag raised plenty of eyebrows. In the past year, company valuations in this sector have soared, and some truly eye-watering deals have gone through.
However, if this week's rumours turn out to be correct, and the company sells for $1 billion, it will be the final confirmation of something that's been whispered for a while now - that social and mobile gaming, along with the "social internet" in general, has become a bubble market.įinnish firm Rovio took in $42 million in a funding round which even the investors admitted the company didn't actually need. There's absolutely no question that PopCap is a great games company. Moreover, it seemingly effortlessly straddles the mobile and social gaming sectors, just as comfortable providing apps to iPhone users, coffee-break entertainment to Facebook users and downloadable titles on Steam for more dedicated gamers. In the past decade, the company has proved its ability not only to keenly and intelligently exploit its flagship franchise - Bejeweled - but also to generate new IP that's just as compelling as that original break-out hit, including Peggle, Plants Vs. Of the many new games companies to emerge from the new social and mobile gaming scene, it's one of the only ones which manages to sustain a delicate and difficult balancing act - appealing to an enormous swathe of the mainstream, casual market while still commanding significant respect from core gamers. It appears on Eurogamer after it goes out to GI.biz newsletter subscribers.īy any standards, PopCap is a remarkable company. Published as part of our sister-site 's widely-read weekly newsletter, the Editorial, is a weekly dissection of an issue weighing on the minds of the people at the top of the games business. Only one question remains: what will happen to PopCap's exciting new game Johnny Minkley's Meat Ceiling
Let's hope Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 can recoup some of that money. "We're not changing our focus from creating awesome casual games everyone can enjoy," the company said.īuying the digital clout of PopCap is an impressive statement of EA's intent to aggressively pursue digital gaming.ĮA snapped up prominent social gaming outfit PlayFish in 2009, in a deal worth $400 million. PopCap will be able to draw on deeper resources and distribute to a wider audience worldwide. "What does this mean for the future? It's simple: 1, EA is being rebranded to Poptronic Arts 2, Sim Zuma: The SwampLife Edition 3, Peggle: Dead Space Bjorn's Breakfast 4, Bejeweled Battlefield Blitz 5, Plants vs.
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"As some of you may have heard, we recently announced that PopCap Games is being acquired by Electronic Arts, a small mom-and-pop boutique software publisher," wrote PopCap. PopCap will be given an additional $550 million in bonuses in next few years for hitting money-making milestones. Zombies creator will receive $650 million in cash and $100 million in stock. The Bejeweled, Zuma, Peggle and Plants vs. EA has bought casual gaming giant PopCap Games in a deal worth $1.3 billion.
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