EA Buys Bejeweled-Maker PopCap In Deal Worth Up To $1.3 Billion

donniebaseball23 writes "Weeks ago, rumors were that Electronic Arts had stepped up to the plate to buy mobile/casual gaming publisher PopCap, developer of titles such as Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies. Today, EA has confirmed that it has purchased PopCap for a final sum of $650 million and $100 million in shares of EA common stock. There's also the possibility for up to $550 million in earn-outs for hitting 2013 financial milestones. That would bring the price to a whopping $1.3 billion. '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.'" More broadly, EA's plan for PopCap is: "don't break it."

Comments

Have to get this out of the way..

[Anonymous Coward]

First post and

I have a Gem in my pants.

Never heard..

[Anonymous Coward]

of them either.

Re:Never heard..

[carlzum]

Bejeweled is similar to Tetris but better because there's only one shape and no rotating. If you match two colored shapes, they're removed and replaced with two more. You continue matching shapes until the monotony becomes unbearable or the device's battery dies.

Re:Never heard..

[bosef1]

I must be pretty out of it. When I first read the headline, I was wondering why EA needed to ruin The Bedazzler. I was also trying to figure out how the company could possibly be valued for 1.3 billion dollars ("those are the finest rhinestone-encrusted surface-to-air missiles I've ever seen").

Good for Pop-Cap

[geekoid]

they deserve it..bad for consumers. EA will break it.

First they will restrict new games to origins.
Second they will increase fee for distribution rights
Third, they will over think it
Fifth, managers from EA will flock to be tied to this success. Once they ahe enought time in, they will flee.

That's how I'm calling it.

OTOH, I can wait for Plants V. zombie madden 2012; Plants V. zombie madden 2013; Plants V. zombie madden 2014, and so on.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[cgeys]

Yeah keep shouting that bullshit and never look at what do now. EA is the one major company that publishes titles like Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge and games from old Maxis, like SimCity, Sims and and all different kinds of games.

But obviously because they also release sports games, which are btw really favored those that do have interest in sports games, they're really shitty and do nothing good. Grow up already.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[Anonymous Coward]

... So Fourth is profit right?

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[geekoid]

You knuckle dragging, knee jerk reactionary might want to consider taking a ready comprehension course. I'm sure there is a dummy book right up your ally.

A) EA management is horrid and has destroy many good ventures.
B) If you would stop screeching like some monkey in heat, you would realize the Plans v. Zombie Madden was a joke, you myopic little twit.
C) You might have noted I, in no way, derided sports games. I actually play a few. Except you where to busy being 'outraged' about something beyond your reading comprehension to think about what I typed..

Stop acting like stupid, short sighted, myopic , knee jerk reactionary. You are better then that, asshole.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[Anonymous Coward]

I assume the fourth step is to learn to proofread.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[brim4brim]

EA only pursued the new IP line because people stopped buying their iteration titles. They said it at a meeting with their shareholders demanding answers for falling profits about a year or two before Mirror's Edge was released. Games like The Sims and Simcity were created by Maxis and published in endless iterations with mostly just new content and a bit of polish on the graphics for years. Seriously, what EA did with these IP's is nothing the community wouldn't have done if they had opened the games up to modding like other gaming companies such as Valve. Just look at the user created items in TF2 or mods for things like Doom 3 or even the original Doom where almost every texture in the game is reworked and often new weapons/models added because the people playing the game enjoy making them. EA's strategy is milk it until it stops producing milk then slaughter it. It is easy to claim all companies want to do this but there are some out there that aren't quite so hardcore in this approach and support their communities in order to ensure they are on board for their next game as a strategy to maximise their bottom lines in a way in which the community and the company both win.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[Anonymous Coward]

Kesmai...

*Sniff*

- AC

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[artor3]

They won't necessarily break it.

Sure, they broke Bullfrog, maker of classics like Populous and Theme Park and Syndicate.
And they turned the innovative Maxis into a factory for churning out neighbor-killing simulations.
And they killed Westwood, creators of the wildly successful Command & Conquer franchise.
And they wrecked multiple Ultima titles after acquiring Origin.

But Bioware's been doing okay under them, so far. So maybe there's hope?

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[Dyinobal]

eh wrong Bioware is already going down hill, just take a look at dragon age 2.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[SQL Error]

There is no Dragon Age 2.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[Anonymous Coward]

EA's stock is expected to dive tomorrow morning. Not because of this, but because they had terrible earnings.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[artor3]

The original Dragon Age was already under EA, so you can't really blame them for problems in the second.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[artor3]

You might want to check a mirror. But first take a nap, because the sheer unmitigated rage emanating from you right now would probably shatter glass. The GP didn't even really say anything offensive, except tell you to grow up, which is apparently needed.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[mattventura]

And what did EA add to those games? My guess: DRM and monetization. I remember when game publishers actually contributed to a game rather than just slapping their name and some copy protection on it.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[rahvin112]

Your right about Origins and they most certainly will break it. They think the future is smartphone games, they've done a dozen paid press stories about how that's the future of gaming. They are going to bet the whole company on it. Definitely a category with some potential for money but in the long run it's not going to replace PC gaming (which EA abandoned 3 years ago) but might kill consoles (doubtful), that's yet to be seen. Personally I don't think people are going to stop playing games on big screens and I'm willing to bet this little Origins venture is a complete and total failure.

EA doesn't know how to take care of a customer. And software is one of those areas where taking care of the customer is very very important. There are millions of american's that will never buy another EA game. Buying popcap isn't going to make that better.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[cheesecake23]

I remember I reacted the same way when Disney took over Pixar, but in retrospect that didn't end up too horribly (although the latest Cars sequel is Disney-scary ...). Anyway, the "don't break it"-quote shows that EA execs are aware of the risks, so maybe there's some small hope they won't completely fuck up PopCap?

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[vegiVamp]

And fourth is a mystery? :-)

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[clickclickdrone]

I think you nailed it totally. EA will kill any creativity or value formoney tied up in PopCap. A pity, I really liked their games. Plants v Zombies is great fun.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[Heed00]

The first one was pretty much finished when EA ate Bioware, so there wasn't time for EA to do much -- the second one is a different story.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[Riceballsan]

EA has generally had a consistant formula over time. Buy out a company with a hugely succesful game. Change the development style of the sequal, ensure nothing new is released in it, just keep the generic formula, exact same game, maybe keep a few levels, spend most of the money for development costs on DRM, raising the importance of DLC. Now because most of the origional team is still there, occasionally some good features do slip through to the next sequel, but in general it's pretty clear that when EA buys a new company, the best result you can hope for is "a bit worse then if the company weren't bought out", and never "a significant improvement now that it has financial backing".

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[DarthVain]

You forgot that they will implement some sort of game crippling DRM.

Fire all the developers. Hire 1/3 at 1/4 the cost, and make them work 3 times as hard.

Then spend everything on marketing.

LOL I was just about to make a madden joke, and just then saw you beat me too it. well played.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[Anonymous Coward]

The lesser of 3 evils, would you rather it be zynga who bought them? Hell no. That would have been the worst care. Activision was another horrible option. EA was the best one.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[blackair]

1) What game developer doesn't EA seem to own. 2) I will give them the benefit of the doubt, they seem to have largely let bioware run itself, so i have hope for popCap. I still wonder why the sold the company.

Re:Good for Pop-Cap

[DiEx-15]

I agree. When hasn't EA taken a good game company and utterly nuked it from orbit with it's shenanigans? I would have thought Pop Cap would have seen EA in action with other game companies (Maxis, Origin Systems, etc.) and told EA a polite "Fuck you, NO!"...

...but I guess $1.3 billion will make the best man weak. What is sad is that Pop Cap has helped draw in casual gamers. Now their games will be on EA's Origin or POGO. Ultimately, I hope that Pop Cap staff does not look back on this and regret making this sale. Provided they don't get replaced by EA bots or become assimilated.

sounds pretty awesome

[v1]

I'm a throwback to when EA was making games for me on my Apple //c. Back in the day they ruled the roost for awesome games. I don't know if they were making most of them in-house or were just buying and slapping their logo on them, but almost every one of them was a winner.

More broadly, EA's plan for PopCap is: "don't break it."

Sounds like a good idea. Hopefully they intend to apply more PopCap to EA, than EA to PopCap. Usually the other way around spells disaster. IMHO EA is on the decline because they've lost touch with their customers. PopCap on the other hand, has a firm grip on that magic in today's market. That's where EA stands to benefit the most from with this move.

Re:sounds pretty awesome

[Elbereth]

Back in those days, Trip Hawkins was the CEO. He left in the early 90s, to found 3DO (which wasn't nearly as successful, to put it lightly). Unfortunately, after Trip Hawkins left, the company became quite a bit less creative, efficiently pumping out sequels to highly derivative games and buying smaller studios (and usually ruining them). I'll always remember the great EA games of the 80s fondly, but it's difficult to see how they're even remotely related to that company today. Hopefully, PopCap will fair better than Origin and Maxis, but I kind of doubt it. Actually, since I intensely dislike most social/casual games, I don't care, but it'd be nice to see someone actually flourish under the EA banner, for once. It's a shame that Trip Hawkins left the company, but it's hard to argue with their bottom line: EA is huge and highly profitable, despite their poor reputation among many gamers.

Interesting bit of trivia: Trip Hawkins was actually an early Apple employee.

Re:sounds pretty awesome

[Nefarious Wheel]

I regard this as a positive move. I'm much happier having EA own PopCap than the previous owner, who should be buried face down with a stake through its heart. Who might that be? Take a wild guess.

Re:sounds pretty awesome

[ConaxConax]

Dracula?

Re:sounds pretty awesome

[atomicbutterfly]

Actually, since I intensely dislike most social/casual games

Off-topic, but why do you intensely dislike these games? I'll agree with you if we're talking about the bullshit that comes out of companies like Zynga, but I know hard-core multiplayer FPS, the completely opposite end of the spectrum, who fall in love with Plants vs Zombies for example.

PopCap sells soul for $1.3B

[xMrFishx]

Cow being prepared for milking.

Re:PopCap sells soul for $1.3B

[Anonymous Coward]

The golden-egg-laying goose is more apt-- except instead of immediately slaughtering the goose to see where the eggs come from, EA will essentially put the goose in a factory farm, where it is overfed and forced to lay eggs until it dies.

That's pretty much the story with SimCity, and no doubt many other series that EA bought hoping to cash in. By the time PopCap dies, it will release a fully-3D over-the-top Plants vs. Zombies vs. Jewels. vs. Peggle that crashes on 80% of systems.

What about Pogo?

[frostsabre]

What does this mean for Pogo.com? (as the first thing I can think of connecting the terms "EA" to "casual gamer" is that service) Will EA continue to monetise the hell out of it or will EA let it wither away a la Sims Online? I'm tilting towards the latter but since one niche Pogo fulfils (or is trying to) is hosting the official Scrabble game, but if Pogo goes, off to Scrabulous then; FWIW it's better.

Re:What about Pogo?

[Anonymous Coward]

EA is betting all of this on big wins on the facebook and mobile crowd. Pogo has been slowing dwindling as EA has shifted Pogo from a superscription based premium site to free games with micro transactions. With the acquisition of playfish for 400m, that's 1.7b invested, I really don't see how they intend to make this back.

Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies

[BRock97]

Does this mean the back of Crazy Dave's car just became a gateway for DLC?

Re:you mean bookworm-maker popcap?

[WrongSizeGlass]

you mean bookworm-maker popcap?

PopCap, soon to be known as PopCrap. If I know EA they'll ruin PopCap with one of their DRM schemes and cut the quality of all future releases. EA = Errant Assholes.

Ohhhh can't wait!

[failedlogic]

By this time next year.... "EA announces today the release of a new Plants* vs Zombies* game"

* Plants and Zombies not included. Must purchase as a DLC.

They will break it.

[MrEricSir]

EA breaks everything they touch -- Westwood, Bullforg, Origin... even Maxis.

Given EA's track record, PopCap doesn't stand a chance.

Re:They will break it.

[keith_nt4]

Didn't EA and Bioware merge...ahh damn it

Re:They will break it.

[v1]

origin... that was ultima wasn't it? I think they bought them out at about Ultima V? I played IV and V to death but I heard they werent any good after that?

All hail Lord British ;)

Re:They will break it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Right, because Bioware has shifted completely over to the making crap department, and BF3 should really be called "BF 2011" amiright? Right now I'd be much more worried if activision bought a company than EA. They seem to be on the craptastic journey that EA used to ride high on. (And sadly are more profitable for it).

Re:They will break it.

[Machtyn]

Sadly, I agree. EA has had a large number of buy-out failures - that is, they buy a successful games maker with proven franchises, then release expected sequels to pitiful reviews and purchases. Granted, most of your examples was also during the whole "Letter from EA employee's wives" episode. EA took major hits from that. It seems that recently, they've been trying to reverse that culture and/or their public face about employee mistreatment and games that just don't shine.

Re:They will break it.

[artor3]

EA bought Origin midway through development of VII.

VIII and IX were notably worse than the previous titles (a quick look at ratings online has VII at 8.8 and IX at 6.5). The series died after that. Or more accurately, was zombified, with EA closing the studio and making browser-based Ultima titles.

Re:They will break it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Origin == Wing Commander,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_Systems

Re:They will break it.

[bfandreas]

To be fair, EA didn't break Origin. They gave them the kiss of life which lasted for a couple of years. Origin were pretty bad with money and would have gone bust despite their great games.
Molyneux wasn't a crack businessman either.
In fact it had become awfully silent around Gariott, the Robertses, Molyneux and the rest after the 90ies.
One thing is certainly true tho. EA is incapable of producing anything original on their own. Would I have sold to them for 1.3bil? Are you kidding? That's enough money to suport everybody at PopCap for the rest of their lives! You can even make a dollar diaper for the fat lady next door for good measure.

Can anyone else say "sell out"

[urbanheretic]

That guy's comment is all executive speak for "I need money for hookers and that limo". If they really cared, they would realise that EA has nothing to offer them, except for a payday. This is selling out at the top, pure and simple.

Re:Can anyone else say "sell out"

[rotide]

If you ran a casual game company and someone offered to pay $1,300,000,000 for your company, would you not sell out? I would, in a heartbeat. Then I'd start another business and enjoy life without ever worrying about money again. (yes, I know it doesn't all go to one guy, and yes I also know that the heads of the company probably already didn't need more money, but the point still stands, over a BILLION dollars!)

Re:Can anyone else say "sell out"

[Anonymous Coward]

All at the cost of not being able to revisit your old games unless you, too, work for EA-- in which they will have the final say on everything you do. You know what RIAA labels do to talented musicians who sign with them? EA is hoping to be the (sole) RIAA label of the gaming world-- so is Activision Blizzard. Valve is sort of heading in that direction, except they're much more like an indie label.

I don't know if a billion dollars, or even the entire GDP of the world, is worth that loss, frankly.

Of course, if you're not heavily invested in your product or fan base, cashing out is easy.

Re:Can anyone else say "sell out"

[rotide]

"Of course, if you're not heavily invested in your product or fan base, cashing out is easy."

Easy to say when you're not the one receiving a check worth over a Billion dollars.

AC making trollish comment, ya, I know. Shouldn't have fed him....

Re:Can anyone else say "sell out"

[Anonymous Coward]

All businesses are for sale. They sell things. Why not themselves...

IMO EA will slowly erode the good bits out of PopCap. They were one of the few studios who put 0 DRM on their products. That will be over in a couple of months I guess.

I made a POINT to buy PopCap because of that very reason.

Re:Can anyone else say "sell out"

[Anonymous Coward]

"Of course, if you're not heavily invested in your product or fan base, cashing out is easy."

Easy to say when you're not the one receiving a check worth over a Billion dollars.

AC making trollish comment, ya, I know. Shouldn't have fed him....

Feed me, Seymour
Feed me all night long - That's right, boy! - You can do it!
Feed me, Seymour
Feed me all night long
Ha ha ha ha ha!
Cause if you feed me, Seymour
I can grow up big and strong.

Re:Can anyone else say "sell out"

[Anonymous Coward]

They are business people in business to make money. If they were so emotionally involved with their end product that no amount could ever make them sell then they wouldn't be in business to begin with, I can't imagine what sort of loser you must be that a piece of code is worth more to you than all the good you could do with that money or all the freedom you could suddenly have to write whatever the hell you want. Grow up, no object/thing/piece of code is worth getting that emotional over.

Re:Can anyone else say "sell out"

[Quirkz]

I have to agree. I've got a modest little online RPG, and while it's been the heart and soul of my creative efforts for half a decade, if someone offered me retirement-quality money for it I'd sell in a heartbeat. Not that I wouldn't be sad to let it go, but I've got plenty of other fantastic ideas I simply haven't had time to pursue because I've been focusing on this one thing for so long.

Re:Can anyone else say "sell out"

[Niomosy]

Let's see. A fair chunk of cash that my family can retire and live off of for the rest of our lives or artistic integrity?

Sing it with me!

Sell out, with me oh yea, sell out, with me tonight
(Gaming) company's gonna give me lots of money
And everything's gonna be all right.

Plus, it's not like I can't go back and create something else later. Sad I can't revisit some game I wrote previously? Perhaps. That doesn't stop me from creating something new, however.

Don't break it?

[interkin3tic]

It's EA, so there's a chance Popcap will survive.

After all, they're not Activision.

Is there a translator in the house?

[newcastlejon]

We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games,'

'Recast their culture', hmm? What the fuck does that mean, exactly?

By working with EA, we'll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience

Ah! They're 'scaling games' now! Marvellous, whatever the hell it is.

If you want to say you're going to sell more games, say that; if you want to say you can hire more talent and make better games, say that. If it was a choice between saying you picked the buyer with the biggest offer or spewing hot air like this I'd have sooner you kept your mouth shut.

English, Mr. Roberts, do you speak it?

Re:Is there a translator in the house?

[Stormwatch]

Businessmen, like politicians, are like that: they can speak, speak, speak -- and say nothing.

Re:Is there a translator in the house?

[Anonymous Coward]

Translation... note that I don't think what was said is correct but ..

'Recast their culture'

Say you've got a company running a house valuation servuce and you discover that rather than giving out house valuations, you are earning most of your money through selling market trend analysis. So you realign the company around this new revenue stream and gradually transition the culture from people that cared about giving individuals a good house valuation to those that care mainly about understanding trends.

Just for the sake of argument, lets not dispute that "EA's culture now is all around making great digital games". What did EA did previously? Make great analog games? Make lousy digital games? I suspect the PopCap exec was implying the latter...

'Scaling games' means way bigger budgets. I.e. future PopCap games will be AAA releases. Why he thinks the customers want this I don't know. One problem with big budget productions is you don't want to take a big risk because it's a lot of money to lose, whereas blowing a million on a game that turns out to suck is much easier to absorb. That leads Hollywood to always use the same successful, boring formulas and I suspect it means the same here too.

Re:Is there a translator in the house?

[Renraku]

Bejeweled 2012: Diamond Edition! Preorder now to get your very own replica of the diamond gemstone! The game is identical to previous releases except for a Gemopedia! People that preorder will get the ability to break down the mysterious red gems in their game..people that don't will have to buy the ability for $12.99.

Features:
-Gemopedia
-Tutorial Mode
-Beautiful cutting edge 3d graphics and full motion video

Sold at all of your fine local retailers for $59.99. Available on PC, PS3, Xbox-360, Wii, 3DS....

Re:Is there a translator in the house?

[eclectro]

'Recast their culture', hmm? What the fuck does that mean, exactly?

Instead of using whips and chains on their programmers, they cast them in vats of molten lead. With a handful of jewels.

Re:Is there a translator in the house?

[Anonymous Coward]

It just another way of saying outsourced everyone.

Re:Is there a translator in the house?

[Terrasque]

Ah, let me get my BizTranslator(TM) up and running:

We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games,'

Translation: We picked EA because they're giving us large sacks of cash, plus hookers and blow. (Note: damn, I'm high now!!!)

By working with EA, we'll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience

Translation: By working with EA we gain large sacks of cash, plus hookers and blow. (Note: woah, I'm flying...)

Wrong company - not PopCap

[Anonymous Coward]

Title has it wrong. It's not PopCap, the correct name of the company is.. The TOTAL ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK! http://web.archive.org/web/19970116184546/http://www.ten.net/html/ten_home.html

Anyone wanna play Stealth2 on Duke3D?!

Re:Wrong company - not PopCap

[Anonymous Coward]

Was thinking of pogo.com, nevermind.

social?

[markdavis]

>"'By working with EA, we'll scale our games and services to deliver more social,"

EEeeew, that will ruin Pop Cap. What made its games nice were that they were NOT scaled up and NOT "social". :(

EA GAMES

[Anonymous Coward]

we fuckup everything...

great post

[decora]

good points Elbereth.

i remember Chuck Yeagers Flight Trainer,
and Bard's Tale,
and a couple others we could never afford.

I believe Deluxe Paint was even EA, was it not?

ahhh for the good old days.

Re:great post

[Dunbal]

Starflight... Sentinel Worlds Future Magic... yumm, those were the days. I still play them once in a while.

Re:great post

[Billlagr]

Skyfox...Deathlord... (C64)

Re:great post

[Digital Vomit]

Starflight

Even way back in the days of Starflight (1986) EA was a terrible company. I remember an email conversation I had with on of the developers many years ago where we talked a bit about the development of Starflight. He warned about dealing with Electronic Arts and didn't have anything good to say about them.

Re:great post

[Anonymous Coward]

ARCHON!

Re:you mean bookworm-maker popcap?

[Dunbal]

It's not like crack-baby basketball at all.

Sigh

[BlindSpot]

I still haven't forgiven EA for the Spore DRM fiasco, so this means PopCap games (future and past) are off-limits for me now. Pity, I almost always enjoy their type of casual/puzzle games. Played the hell out of PvZ after getting it cheap during the last Steam sale, and still playing the Peggle games after several years.

Don't blame them for selling, just wish it was to a better company.

Re:Sigh

[Anonymous Coward]

You didn't get to play Spore? Consider yourself lucky.

Re:Sigh

[BurningFeetMan]

I still haven't forgiven EA for Spore! If only Spore's DRM had prevented me from playing that horrid title!

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia?

[decora]

no no. he died in the 1400s... hrm.

well, i'm afraid to admit. you have stumped me, sir. good show! jolly good.

This makes me cry

[rjejr]

I loved Peggle, and then PvZ even more. There is no hope now.

EA Corporate Strategy

[Deaths Proxy]

1. Buy innovative games developer.
2. Churn out cheap sequels as fast as you can.
3. Disassemble the acquired company when everyone realizes that the developer is no longer capable of making decent games.
4. ?
5. Profit!

RIP Bullfrog, Maxis and Westwood Studios.

Re:you mean bookworm-maker popcap?

[JMJimmy]

Don't forget server shut downs!

http://www.ea.com/1/service-updates

how about Computer Gaming World?

[decora]

Scorpia?

Sierra magazine?

King's Quest?

Re:you mean bookworm-maker popcap?

[DocHoncho]

Buddy! Where have you been??

Look at you, asserting that your slashdot persona, Michael Kristopeit is your real name while vomiting insults and bile on all the well meaning folks of slashdot. So, feeb, prove that you are Michael Kristopeit, and that Michael Kristopeit is in fact a real person. Oh, you cant? So you're effectively just as anonymous as all the so called feebs you flame on teh internets? Makes you look kind of stupid, doesn't it? Not that you needed any help.

P.S. No, we don't want your phone number. No, we don't want your address. We want PROOF that you are who you say you are. Don't ask me how you're supposed to do that, you're the one who goes on and on about feebs and anonymousness. "Oh HO! I'm 'Michael Kristopeit' cower feeb, why don't you post under your real name?!" LOL! My name is Napolean Bonaparte, why do you cower behind your pseudonym feeb?

Goddamnit

[atomicbutterfly]

EA's gonna destroy PopCap. I can just imagine it...

Plants vs. Zombies 2:
The base game only has plants. The zombies are DLC.

Re:Goddamnit

[Niomosy]

Winning would then be easy! That wouldn't work to encourage DLC. What you do is only put in zombies and let the plants be DLC. Everyone now has an incentive to get the DLC.

I see where this is headed

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure EA will turn around an announce a partnership with Google+ in an attempt to leverage PopCap into "The next Zynga".

EA = Satan

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't really know what PopCap are like, but now that they are under the EA umbrella it will mean there will be no customer support and the games will ship loaded with bugs, most of which never get fixed.

Lets not miss the object lesson.

[lexsird]

Bejeweled, this is one my mother plays. She got it for her 73 year old friend who plays it. I will have to let her know that her silly game company sold for 1.3 Billionish.

Never underestimate simple games. I can't get my dear old mom to try many games, but Bookworm hooked her in, then it was Bejeweled. Complicated games are beyond her, watching her death grip a mouse trying to steer around in a FPS makes me fret. Relax mom! But her and her friends love cheesy games. Things you don't catch a dyed in the wool hard core gamer ever touching, goofy cute stuff, they like.

Look at Angry Birds! Or not, ...lol That genre is old as Scorched Earth or probably before that I am sure. Worms was a bit later. I guess you can reinvent the wheel in game software and the world really doesn't give a a big damn, especially if it's fun.

1.3 Billion ...lol

If It Can Be Broken

[Greyfox]

EA can break it. They have something like the Midas touch, except that whatever they touch turns to shit. Even now they're probably busily at work turning everything the company has ever produced into a huge steaming pile of shit. Tomorrow we'll wake up, and that'll be all that's left.

Since it's not a Madden title...

[Chas]

Well, since it's not a Madden title, EA is going to fuck PopCap up royally.

They have a long and illustrious history of tanking pretty much every acquisition that's not a sports title.

Re:Since it's not a Madden title...

[TheSkepticCanuck]

Coming next summer! Plants vs. Madden 2012!

Re:you mean bookworm-maker popcap?

[Mindcontrolled]

I think Kristopeit is an AI experiment gone horribly wrong. Seems to have gone through an upgrade cycle lately, I think it knows a couple more words by now. Or maybe it's an artificial neural net? Poor little snail neurons on a silicon wafer, forced to post on /. in some evil underlords lair?

Anyway, that fixation on identity seems like a straightforward camouflage tactics for an AI in a Turing test situation - deflect from questions about your identity - and thereby humanity - by questioning your interrogator's instead. The constant insistence on it defeats its purpose, though.

Re:you mean bookworm-maker popcap?

[tehcyder]

Is your Google broken?

Another one bites the dust...

[denyAll]

Aw, crap. There goes another good game development company.
I wonder if this will be as bad as when CA took over Cheyenne Backup, turning it into ARCserve and promptly damning it to hell.

And thus, no doubt, more jobs are lost.

[JustAnotherIdiot]

Thanks corporate America for fucking over the little guy again.

In other news ...

[daveywest]

EA announced the next update to Bejeweled won't be available until sometime late in the next decade.

What does Jeff Green think?

[Anonymous Coward]

So what does Jeff Green think about being back with EA? :)

What I'm hoping for..

[Anonymous Coward]

Bring back psychobabble!