EA to acquire PopCap Games for $750 million

by Christopher Grant on Jul 12th 2011 4:17PM

Rumors first began circulating nearly three weeks ago when TechCrunch reported that casual gaming pusher PopCap was going to be acquired for over $1 billion dollars. Now, Electronic Arts has announced its intention to purchase the Seattle-based developer for $750 million, including $100 million in stock. The acquisition is expected to close in August of this year, pending the usual regulatory approvals.

"EA and PopCap are a compelling combination," boasted CEO John Riccitiello, clearly envisioning a newly expanded EA digital empire. "PopCap's great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA's momentum and accelerate our drive towards a $1 billion digital business."

"We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games," said David Roberts, CEO of PopCap. "By working with EA, we'll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience." In case it's not obvious, we'll spell it out for you: O-R-I-G-I-N.

Source: Press release
More coverage: John Riccitiello's email announcement

Tags: acquisition, david-roberts, EA, Electronic-Arts, John-riccitiello, mac, pc, Plants-vs-Zombies, PopCap, PopCap-Games

Reader Comments (104)

'tktk indeed.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

@Kirkpad
What do you mean no? Imagine all the great seqels we are gonna get Bejewled 2012 with minor tweaks then Bejewled 2013 then it'll be Bejeweled '14 with even smaller tweaks

Say goodbye to online support for any PopCap game more than 2 years old.

@Kirkpad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

I joined Joystiq to express my immense sadness. This is the worst news for gaming in years.

@Finer

Why? Will PopCap not be able to release a new game once every two years now?

@Ellimem

Maybe he really liked getting his PopCap games over Steam.

@Ellimem No, they'll release a new version of their games every year, however every year it'll be the same game and they won't be allowed to have more than 1 new thing per year, and no new games will be allowed to be made unless somebody from PC begs a EA exec to fund it.

I can wait to make two girl jewels do it in Bejeweled Effect.

@CaptainProtonX Well we all know what they're after with this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBf47yRpOM8
As long as PopCap does not get forced down into Madden levels of project rushing and cash milking, I don't really mind. But there still is the looming shadow of PopCap games becoming Origin only...
:/ indeed.

Tomorrow's headline: Bejeweled and PvZ removed from Steam, only available on Origin

@Ben Forbes Buy the PopCap complete pack while it's still there.

in b4 over reacting gamers... 750 million sounds like a sweet deal to me.

@PR0F3TA for Popcap? heck yes it is a sweet deal. Popcap was more or less flash games forever. Hard work payed off.

I hope the everyday employees had stock options :)

@Fire Walk With Me

"more or less flash games"

I'll say it again, NOOOOOO.

@Fire Walk With Me Flash games? You mean the demo/baited hook that snared a billion bored ladies at work into buying their full games once they got home?

If flash games were worth money someone would have bought New Grounds by now.

EA will probably never make back that money. Sure Bejeweled, Peggle, Zuma, and PvZ are popular but not $750 million dollars worth.

@Surkov Give them a couple years. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-23-report-ea-buying-popcap-for-USD1-billion

"PopCap is a private company and doesn't release sales figures, but Forbes reported recently that it generated $100m in revenue in 2010. "

@Surkov

its a risk that EA is willing to take. the developers of PopCap have proven time and time again that their games are consumer friendly. I have 2 friends at work who don't game beyond their iPhones and they talk PvZ strategies all the time.

@Surkov It might also serve to deny Valve access to Popcap games as others have mentioned.

@Fire Walk With Me

EA has plenty of games on Steam. I just bought Burnout Paradise a few days ago.

@tendoboy1984 Doesn't mean they cant take them off whenever they want. Latest moves have pointed towards this. I am sure they have no interest in paying Steam for their service.

Cool.

EA is awesome. Nice pickup.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I have to agree, never had a problem with EA and they consistently publish games that everyone universally loves. I coil up in a ball of confusion when people mistakenly call out EA as being the evil Empire of the industry.

@Shadowbender

Maybe you might not remember it, but my grudge against EA started when they cancelled Majestic.

"Hey kids, did you buy that boxed copy? You know the copy that gave you the entire season included in the price of the game? You know, the game with a monthly free? Sorry, you can't play anymore. We're cancelling the game."

@Shadowbender Three words. Project. Ten. Dollar.

@Faceless Troll
DING DING DING, thats exacly where i was going. gawd forbid somebody make a return on their investment

@Protege420
with that im refering to a consumer investing 60$ on a game that others think they can hold all rights to after selling it to me thats like a POT dealer telling selling you the rights to a bag...... yeah that will work

@Protege420

I don't think you know what "return on investment means".

@Faceless Troll I buy my games new so I have three more words for you "I don't care".

@The angry pro consumer gaming ga That just means you have money to waste on games that might or might not be garbage. In the meantime some of us are a bit more picky about what we sink $60 on.

@Faceless Troll

If you want to be careful with your gaming investments, the iOS and Android stores are a good way to try unproven indie games without breaking the bank.

I usually buy my $50 games from proven devlopers, since I know they are quality experiences (Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros., Burnout, etc.).

@Faceless Troll Then don't buy games on release day. Unless it is something I absolutely MUST HAVE and WILL LOVE EVEN IF IT HURTS ME IN THE FACE, I wait for reviews or the price to drop before picking it up.

This practice has served me extremely well. Except for Metroid: Other M, which hurt me in the face.

@Bubbameister33
shows what you know doesnt it....
if i pay 60$ for a game and decide it only gave me 40$ of entertainment so i trade it for 20& thats a return if I sell it to a friend for 40$ thats a profit but i guess i could be wrong.

@Faceless Troll But if you're buying used you're not paying $60 (new), on the other hand I am (which I don't with sales going on all the time).

@Protege420 Actually, no. You are wrong. That is not what a Return on Investment is.

A ROI is used to determine the profitability of an investment, not a recouping or calculation of actual + economic costs.

@The angry pro consumer gaming ga I'm not talking about used games. But you apparently think it's unreasonable to expect a rental to have the same functionality as the copy you buy in stores.

@Shadowbender Well they do annex anything and everything they can, start revolutions of annoying things (required inet connection for PC games and Online Pass Codes anyone?), piss off large amounts of people with most of their moves (see above annoyances along with their threats to cut off 30 million people from EA games on PC unless you give in and pay their high prices and use their service), and really really enjoy being open about them milking sucess for everything (Does anyone even remember when the first Madden game was? We've had one every year for so long I've forgotten...).
Also there is how they joined the industry (reverse engineering a console, I think it was the Genesis but I may be wrong, to force the console owners to strike a deal and sell their games their way.) and the fact that they have switched from making and releasing good games to focusing on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBf47yRpOM8
That's all I have to say on it. I'll still buy their games as long as the games are good, but I fully understand other people's rage.

@Faceless Troll

But, it certainly can have the same functionality, for the low low price of $10 dollars!

It's nice to see all the optimism about this acquisition in these comments, but I can't recall a single instance of a large publisher purchasing a developer that resulted in a better product.

Can anyone?

@Chareth Cutestory Of course we can ! Look at what Bioware made after EA acquired them ! Look at the fantastic rise of quality in their games since then, and...

... Oh, wait, I remember now, those games were either terrible (*cough*DragonAge2) or dumbed down sequels (*cough*MassEffect).

But I'm sure THIS time, it's gonna be fine !

maybe now we'll get bejelewed 3 on iphone?

im gonna go ahead and say im a little skeptical about this one.

Is is crazy that I'm glad it's EA?

Because that means it wasn't Zynga. lol.

@Celicynd Or Activision.

Wonder if this signals the end of original games from Popcap, and instead we see releases of the same properties over and over again.

Hey, at least it wasn't Zynga.

Oh, God, no.

This is f!@#ing terrible.

Expect 15 different sequels to each PopCap franchise, removal of any previous internet connectibility, and DLC.

Probably shitting up of all the IP's, too.

@Drakkenfyre
Removal of internet connectivity?
What are you talking about... EA's all about persistent internet connectivity now! EA's new games shut down if the servers don't constantly send a "It's okay to play the game" command!

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Plants vs. Zombies

EA to acquire PopCap Games for $750 million

Reader Comments (104)

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:14PM Ellimem said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:16PM Kirkpad said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:05PM TaintedKane said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:36PM jsx said

Posted: Jul 13th 2011 11:31AM SirUrza said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:18PM Finer said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:23PM Ellimem said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:25PM copa said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 6:34PM Jetleo1 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:19PM Weejo said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:20PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 6:39PM Jetleo1 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:20PM Ben Forbes said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:08PM logicbus said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:21PM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:32PM Fire Walk With Me said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 10:14PM Kirkpad said

Posted: Jul 13th 2011 9:05AM yomachaser said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:21PM Surkov said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:27PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:31PM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:35PM Fire Walk With Me said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:14PM tendoboy1984 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:29PM Fire Walk With Me said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:22PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:29PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:32PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:37PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:46PM Protege420 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:50PM Protege420 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:51PM Bubbameister33 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:52PM The angry pro consumer gaming ga said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:03PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:18PM tendoboy1984 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:25PM superfrick said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:27PM Protege420 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 5:57PM The angry pro consumer gaming ga said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 6:07PM superfrick said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 6:08PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 6:48PM Jetleo1 said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 6:50PM Chareth Cutestory said

Posted: Jul 13th 2011 3:31AM Torticoli said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:25PM panama chief said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:26PM RstyShackleFrd said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:27PM Celicynd said

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Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:29PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Jul 12th 2011 4:37PM Peffse said

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