Video game developer Electronic Arts announced on Monday that it has acquired social-gaming company Playfish, paying $275 million in cash and $25 million in "equity-retention arrangements." Playfish also is entitled to up to $100 million if it meets performance milestones by December 31, 2011.
EA also announced later Monday that it planned to eliminate 1,500 jobs, or about 17 percent of its workforce, as part of a plan to reduce annual costs by about $100 million.
The acquisition of Playfish falls in line with EA's desire to be more than just a developer for traditional gaming platforms, like consoles and the PC. The company said in a statement that the acquisition "strengthens its focus on the transition to digital and social gaming."
Thanks to the explosive growth of social networks and games made for those platforms, Playfish is enjoying strong performance in the social-gaming space. The company has more than 150 million games installed on several platforms, including Facebook, MySpace, the iPhone, and Android-based devices. According to Playfish, more than 60 million active players per month are playing titles. Its Facebook titles include Pet Society, Restaurant City, and Country Story--all three are among the most-popular games on the social network.
The EA Interactive division, which Playfish will join, has done a fine job of capitalizing on the trend of online and mobile gaming. That division includes Pogo, one of the top casual-gaming sites on the Web. The Mobile side of EA Interactive has captured 34 percent market share in the U.S. with the help of Madden NFL 10, The Sims, and Tetris.
Updated at 10:20 p.m. with details of job cuts.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
EA will release three games, Tetris, Bejeweled, and Monopoly, for Google's Android platform. Here, a user shows off Pac-Man on an Android-powered phone.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)Electronic Arts announced Wednesday three games for Google's Android mobile phone platform.
The publisher said that Tetris will be available immediately and that two other games, the monster hit Bejeweled and Monopoly Here & Now, will be launched in November.
EA has already released at least five games for Apple's iPhone, including Tetris, Spore Origins, and Scrabble.
The move to bring games to Android is sure to be a boost for the platform, given EA's size and influence and the fact that on the iPhone, games have become some of the most popular apps of all. However, there's no way yet to tell how many people will download the games on Android. In addition, EA didn't say whether it was planning to charge for the titles.
The three games are being provided by EA Mobile.
- prev
- 1
- next
