EA gets Chillingo, but not Angry Birds

@GamingColt

They've put out a ton of good stuff on the App Store (like Knight's Rush, Predators, and Zombie Escape). I'm still playing iDracula and Sword of Fargol. I think this was a good buy for EA.

Hell they made a killer deal if you ask me. Ngmoco was just purchased for 400 million dollars! Even though I think they're a capable dev; they seem bent on making the next Farmville.

@Ellimem

But I thought Chillingo were just the publishers of Angry Birds, Rovio are the developers

@Ellimem

Chillingo wasnt the developer, Rovio was, and EA didnt buy Rovio. Chillingo is a publisher

@Ellimem

Chillingo isn't a developer, they're a publisher.

@Ellimem

Chillingo is a publisher, they have zero in house people making games. So EA doesn't own any of these titles. They still belong to the actual developers. (like me) so what EA get's is Chillingos ability to find great games. (not make them) And EA gets to throw their money behind them if they choose to. Also, Chillingo only signs games to the iOS platforms. Which is why Angry Birds can publish on any OTHER platform they want without Chillingos approval.

@All What does it matter if they are not a developer? Just because they aren't getting development talent or IP with this purchase doesn't mean it wasn't a good one. They purchased a publisher that knows its way around the app-store and digital distribution, has ties to independent developers, and has a great eye for publishing quality little games. EA just added some pretty powerful infrastructure to their mobile publishing business.

@shard765

Good comment, although I'm still curious about something. Even though you said "Chillingo only signs games to the iOS platforms", there was a PlayStation.Blog post from August 25 by Chillingo's head of publishing announcing Angry Birds for PlayStation Minis (PSP and PS3).

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/08/25/minis-angry-birds-is-visually-optimized-for-the-pspgo/

So, in light of that, it would appear Chillingo had some level of involvement with this PS Minis version of the game. This would be contrary to Mr. Vesterbacka's comment that his company's relationship with Chillingo never went past the iOS versions of the game

Was Rovio developing this version internally which Chillingo would have in turn published, or did Chillingo license it and oversee its development as well as publishing? Also, would this deal with EA have any impact on the future availability of this game on PS Minis and possibly whatever Nintendo platform (WiiWare or DSiWare) they were planning to release it on as well?