PopCap on EA Deal: "We're not speaking a different language, because everyone's talking about games”

Posted 07/13/2011 at 10:07pm | by Nathan Grayson

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And that was that. In one fell, $750 million dollar swoop, EA gobbled up PopCap. To most, it was just another day in gaming's primordial ooze of a business sector – where everyone devours everyone else in a bitter bid for survival. Slip on your gamervision glasses, however, and you'll see a different story altogether. “Battlefield 3, Need for Speed publisher acquires folks behind Peggle, Plants vs Zombies.” Sorry, what? Let us wash the crazy out of our ears. PopCap, however, insists that it leaped into the belly of the beast quite willingly.

“We're not speaking a different language, because everyone's talking about games," PopCap founder John Vechey told Gamasutra. "They've got this amazing digital publishing... and we are going to get to so many more customers so much quicker, and better. We can get to our objectives a lot faster than we would have independently."

"PopCap needs to do what PopCap does," he added. "We're going to take advantage of their world-class digital publishing, so we can just focus on making great games... We're focused on making great games and getting them to everyone in the world. Late in the fall, we said, 'let's explore options without going public that might get us to our goals faster or better.'”

Unsurprisingly, EA also has something of a high opinion of its nearly one billion dollar bedfellow. Among other things, EAi executive VP and GM Barry Cottle called PopCap “the Pixar of the game industry” and spoke highly of its ability to create “killer IP.”

In other words, the two didn't rush into some ill-advised marriage because they were blinded by dollar signs. Initial indications, then, seem to suggest that EA won't be bulldozing PopCap's offices to replace them with a soulless sequel factory. Granted, words are only worth so much. In the event of Pegglefield 3 or Plants vs Zombies vs The NFL Lockout, you're welcome to join us in our underground ice fortress of solitude. We've kept it nice and warm just in cas-- wait. No. No. Noooooooooo.