Game maker Electronic Arts is getting into the Facebook game apps business in a big way by purchasing Playfish for $400 million.

Well known to console and computer gamers, Electronic Arts (EA) is making a major move into the social networking game space with the purchase of Playfish.

For a purchase price of $275 million in cash, $25 million in stock to help keep the current staff and a $100 million promise of earnouts if the company hits certain goals through Dec. 31st, 2011, EA has shown they aren’t joking around about social gaming.  It is estimated by Silicon Alley Insider that Playfish currently grosses around $75 million per year from a mixture of traditional advertising, in-game sales of digital goods and sponsorship offers.

With the meteoric rise of social gaming across various social networks, it isn’t surprising that traditional gaming companies would want to enter the fray.  With a brand name with such high recognition like EA, things could get very interesting in the space very quickly.

Related:

Entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 5:01 pm under business.

Read more entries by Sean P. Aune.
Stumble It!