Seattle based PopCap Games apparently had plenty of suitors when it went on the market recently, including fellow casual game maker Zynga. In the end it went with Electronic Arts, maker of some of the bigger console games, such as the Madden series in a deal that could be worth $1.3 billion.
A lot of things going on here. EA is now much better positioned to play in the increasingly popular and lucrative casual games space. While hard core gamers are happy to shell out $60 for Madden, there are also plenty of customers who would never go near something like that but happily pay $3 for Plants vs. Zombies on their phone.
PopCap makes some pretty great games and now EA will be able to pool the creative talent between the companies.
This also positions EA to compete against the fast rising Zynga, makers of ultra casual games that are usually free to play.
So basically EA gets to go low end as well as high end. It’s like The Gap owning both Banana Republic and Old Navy.
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