Report: EA Hooking Playfish for $250 Million

Posted October 14, 2009 by David Radd

Games in social media are fast becoming big business, as evidenced by Zynga increasing its number of monthly users to 129 million. Another validation of social media games (especially on Facebook) will reportedly come from Electronic Arts, which Inside Social Games [thanks Silicon Alley Insider] says is acquiring Playfish for a rumored $250 million. In fact, the report suggests that the deal may have already gone down a few weeks ago, and an official announcement is coming soon.

Playfish is one of the most popular game makers on Facebook, having increased from 35 million users to roughly 60 million over the past few months. It is expected that Playfish will make $75 million in 2009 off of games like Pet Society, Minigolf Party and Restaurant City.

According to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian, EA believes the Internet will be the single largest growth driver for the games industry. "In particular, EA views the social networking platforms (e.g., Facebook) as a large growth opportunity, with relatively low barriers to entry, high margins, and attractive viral marketing characteristics," he commented.
(courtesy of industrygamers)