Electronic Arts bought a social game development company for almost $ 400 million

If you need proof that playing in social networks is a huge business, then just watch the news of the day for today.
Electronics Arts video games giant announced that they bought Playfish, a gaming company. The deal is close to 400 million dollars. And if before it was only rumored about it, now the fact of purchase is officially announced.

Electronics Arts will pay $ 275 million in cash and $ 25 million as a share in the company's shares. In addition, if Playfish reaches certain “targets” (in other words, continues to grow), the price may increase to $ 400 million.

And there is no reason to doubt that Playfish (which, by the way, has only been in existence for 2 years) will continue to grow rapidly in the social games market. The companies own some of the most popular games on Facebook, MySpace and iPhone, for example - Pet Society , Restaurant City and Country Story .

Given the financial and gaming opportunities of Electronic Arts, we can witness a very interesting and promising cooperation of game consoles and games in social networks, as well as huge investments for the growth and development of "social" games.
')
Translated from here