EA to buy PopCap Games for $1.3B

By Molly McHugh July 12, 2011

Electronic Arts (EA) announced today that it will acquire PopCap Games in a deal that may reach as much as a total of $1.3 billion . Last month, PopCap was rumored to have a mystery buyer that was offering somewhere around $1 billion. Given EA’s recent forays into social gaming, the deal doesn’t come as a huge surprise.

PopCap is behind popular games Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle, Zuma, and Bejeweled. ‘We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games,” CEO David Roberts said in a statement today. “By working with EA, we’ll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience.”

The rise of social gaming has been good to PopCap, which integrates with Facebook, RenRen, Google, as well as Android and iOS devices. And EA has been keeping tabs on the industry: The developer has been traditionally affiliated with console and PC gaming up until recently, when it’s made several acquisitions to establish itself in the social gaming market. EA acquired both Playfish and Angry Birds publisher Chillingo recently, as well as signed a five year deal with Facebook in late 2010.

Adding PopCap Games to this list is another big step for EA’s social gaming division. It’s becoming more and more of a serious competitor in the social and casual gaming market, likely with intentions of challenging Zynga, which continues to dominate. According to EA’s investor statements, PopCap will also help its presence with gamers in Asia, as well as via mobile platforms.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…

Gaming

Best PS5 deals: Console bundles, top games, and accessories

A person plays Crash Bandicoot using a PS5 DualSense controller.

The PlayStation 5 is probably one of the most popular gaming consoles right now, especially with the recent PS5 Slim release. It has a lot of great exclusive games to play, including some of the best games on the market, such as Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Elden Ring, so its no surprise that folks are looking to get their hands on the console. To that end, we've gone out and found some of our favorite gaming deals, and that includes everything from the PS5 console itself, to games and peripherals, so be sure to check out all our suggestions below.
Best PS5 deals

The PlayStation 5 has recently seen a great revision with it now slightly slimmer than before and also offering more storage space with 1TB of internal space resulting in 842GB of it being usable. You still get the impressive DualSense controller along with all the benefits that the PS5 offers. With the arrival of the new revision, there are some great bundles around, including a free digital copy of Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

Gaming

Best Lego deals: Save on Star Wars, Marvel, Technic and more

legos new space shuttle set includes hubble telescope model lego discovery

There are a lot of great ways to disconnect from a screen, whether it's reading a book or playing some board games; you can do a lot of things to give your eyes and doomscrolling a rest. One great way to do it is to build some Lego, which is not only great for de-stressing but also a solid option if you're building something you're into, such as Thor's gauntlet or a Lego Technic Bugatti. That said, Lego does tend to get quite expensive, especially if you go for the bigger sets that are in IPs like Marvel, which is why we've gone out and collected some of our favorite Lego deals we could find out there. Or, if you'd rather stick to something more co-operative, you can check out these great board game deals as well.

Today's Best Lego Marvel Deals

Gaming

Best gaming headset deals: PS5, Xbox and PC

The Razer Nari Ultimate gaming headset with a gaming PC.

If you want to go online and do a serious bit of gaming, especially in a multiplayer game, then grabbing yourself one of the best gaming headsets out there is probably the way to go. Of course, going for a high-end gaming headset can be expensive, but there are some great options in the mid and budget-range that you could grab instead. That will help you save a little extra while still getting a relatively good experience, which is why we've gone out and found our favorite gaming headset deals to save you a bit of trouble. Also, while you're here, you may want to check out these great video game deals to stock up on some games.
Turtle Beach Ear Force Recon 50 wired gaming headset — $25, was $36

The Turtle Beach Ear Force Recon 50 wired gaming headset is one of the most affordable options in the market right now, but it has most of what you would need from a gaming headset. It’s equipped with high-quality 40mm speakers and an adjustable high-sensitivity microphone that will make your voice loud and clear when you talk. You can also remove the microphone when you’re not using it, and there are in-line controls in the Turtle Beach Ear Force Recon 50’s cable for volume and muting the microphone.