EA buys PopCap

Hello,

this is new(s) : EA seems to have bought PopCap.

What I ask myself is this : Did they merely bought them to have "filler games" for their new "Origin" games download shop ?

Alrik

Probably. I think they are trying to compete with Steam. I wonder if the PopCap stuff will be yanked from Steam or not put on sale or things like that.

I'm betting at some future point EA stuff will be pulled from Steam entirely, or at least that is likely their goal.

Well, Popcap is supposedly known for its mobile games, or so I read (I only know them for Plants & Zombies). With one in three adults owning a mobile device in the U.S., I can only imagine this is a move on EA's part to keep with the times.

I guess Plants vs Zombies 2 will now feature an Awesome Button.

Maybe the new Dragon Age will involve matching gems to cast a spell

From a news report they spent alot of money. The company will pay $650 million in cash and $100 million in shares.They will earn that back quick with all the casual game sales. Its a smart move.

Couchpotato said:

From a news report they spent alot of money somewhere around 1 billion dollars. They will earn that back quick with all the casual game sales. Its a smart move.

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Aha, so that's where the money that should have funded Dragon Age II went.

hishadow said:

Aha, so that's where the money that should have funded Dragon Age II went.

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Well we know they want the causal market as stated by EA before. I fixed my post to show the right amount spent.

JDR13 said:

I guess Plants vs Zombies 2 will now feature an Awesome Button.

Click to expand...

Actually, what I expect to see in terms of EA influence is the move to in-app purchases. All of that Crazy Dave stuff will now available to buy using real money.

But I am hopeful that for at least two years (until the end of the contract) PopCap will be left alone in terms of creativity and so on.

After that I don't think EA will be able to help themselves - we see it all time, mergers where the upper management makes the purchase *because* of disparate cultures, but then tries to force a melding of cultures to save a couple of million a year (<1% of profits) and ends up destroying the company in the process.

Yeah. Like with Chrysler & Daimler.