EA Scoops Up Social Games Publisher Playfish

Electronic Arts on Monday announced its acquisition of Playfish, a social games developer known for Pet Society and Country Story on Facebook, along with other games available on MySpace, Bebo, Android, and Google. The company has one title in the App Store, Who Has the Biggest Brain? - a brain training game.

EA paid US$275 million in cash for Playfish and could shell out up to another $100 million if certain performance milestones are met by Dec. 31, 2011. The publisher said it will place Playfish under its EA Interactive (EAi) brand, along with Pogo and EA Mobile, which has published many games for the iPhone.

Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Interactive, said in a press release: "EAi has been successfully leading the charge for EA, and with the addition of proven expertise from Playfish, their broad consumer base and strong game brands, we’re moving ahead aggressively in our plans to lead in the category of cross-platform social entertainment."