Earlier today EA announced that they have struck a deal with casual gamemaker Popcap Games. This is a major step forward into the casual game market which EA has been trying to crack for the last few years. Popcap boasts more then 150 million installed games on various web and mobile platforms worldwide. The acquisition of Popcap will cost EA $650 million in cash plus another $100 million and stock.
“EA and PopCap are a compelling combination,” said EA CEO John Riccitiello. “PopCap’s great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA’s momentum and accelerate our drive towards a $1 billion digital business. EA’s global studio and publishing network will help PopCap rapidly expand their business to more digital devices, more countries, and more channels.”
It will be interesting now to see how EA utilizes it’s newly acquired talent, and if “big budgets” will help or hinder the amazingly addictive games Popcap has created over the years. For all the details on the deal you can read the full press release here.
