The recent announcement Electronic Arts released regarding the fact that they acquired Chillingo, a popular mobile game creator known best for its popular game on Apple’s mobile devices, Angry Birds, was met with much fanfare. The action of acquiring Chillingo opens doors for Electronic Arts to have access to a number of titles to be released not only on the iPhone, but the iPad and iTouch, as well. This announcement proves to be just one in a large group of gaming industry acquisitions. Many vendors are looking to expand the amount of games they are able to release on many different mobile electronics, including both Apple and Android platforms, as well as Facebook and other social networks. Electronic Arts also develops games for social networks already, having just recently release Madden NFL Superstars, a game that is free to play on Facebook.
Reports have shown such acquisitions as Zynga, whom many recognize as the creator of several of the most popular games on Facebook such as Farmville and Mafia Wars, that not long ago bought a Japanese games creator, Unoh. Other companies who have recently acquired other gaming companies are Walt Disney Co, who purchased Playdom in July for over $700 million, after buying Tapulous, a developer of games for the iPhone that developed one of the most popular games, Tap Tap Revenge. While Electronic Arts did not reveal any financial details concerning their purchase of Chillingo, a report from the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital website disclosed that the purchase price of Chillingo was under $20 million.
