Electronic Arts Acquires Faceboo Game Developer Playfish for $25 million
It has been rumored that EA is just about acquire or has already acquired Playfish. Playfish is a Facebook game developer who produces some of the most popular games on the Facebook platform. The acquisition is rumored to be around $250 million.
This year it is expected that Playfish will have $75 million in revenues from advertising combined with virtual goods sales. Another leading social games company, Zynga, is slated to report revenues upwards of $200 million for 2009.
Although the free-to-play with microtransactions business model has been huge in the Asian video gaming industry for some time now, it’s been slow to make it over to Western shores. This year casual and social gaming companies using that business model have attracted massive numbers of players and revenue to match, unsettling the traditional video game industry.
Beyond the current revenue potential, EA could see further gains from using its muscle to more widely advertise Playfish’s game roster — which includes hugely popular Facebook titles Restaurant City, Pet Society, World Challenge, and Who Has the Biggest Brain.
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