It’s probably a thinly-veiled plan to get free copies of Peggle and Plants Vs Zombies for EA staff.
Electronic Arts, more commonly referred to as EA, has signed a deal with developer PopCap to absorb the company for a whopping $750 million – though this is only three quarters of an earlier rumoured deal.
EA's clearly hoping that PopCap, creators of addictive games such as Peggle and Plants Vs Zombies, will be able to develop their current IP further as well as creating new, valuable IP.
While the details of PopCap's integration within EA are not clear, the method they chose to announce this merger is quite amusing – you can see it to the right.
Joystiq quote EA CEO John Riccitiello as boasting "PopCap's great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA's momentum and accelerate our drive towards a $1 billion digital business."
This, along with other recent news such as the removal of Crysis 2 from Valve's Steam platform, suggest that EA is looking to expand and increase focus on their competing platform, Origin.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012