Electronics Arts Acquires Social Gaming Company Playfish

Gaming giant Electronics Arts is jumping into the social gaming world. EA is said to be paying up to $400 million for Playfish, a social gaming company.

Playfish is behind some of the biggest games on the social media networks Facebook and MySpace. Some of their more popular games are Pet Society, Restaurant City and Country Story. Mashable reports the EA deal starts out with $275 million in cash and $25 million in equity for Playfish. If Playfish continues to grow they will be given performance bonuses that could make the deal worth as much as $400 million. Playfish has more than 150 million games installed by their users according to their website. The company has offices in London, San Francisco, Beijing and Tromso, Norway. In a press release issued by Playfish, CEO Kristian Segerstrale said, "The industry is undergoing dramatic transformation and joining EA is the ideal opportunity for us to push forward our goals to lead in the social entertainment evolution on a faster and much larger scale. [EA Interactive]’s vision and entrepreneurial culture are consistent with our own, and together, we are in position to be the company that defines new and innovative connected experiences that will change the way people play games.”