Short Form:

Put on Your Sandals We’re Going Casual

As John so elegantly put it, EA have indeed bought PopCap in a deal worth nearly $1 billion. Whilst this deal has garnered a lot of press, EA also purchased another game company, something that has flown under the radar. Ohai is game developer focused on developing social games, and one that has been mildly successful in a market dominated by Zynga and things ending in “ville”. Together these purchases mark an interesting and, in my opinion, inevitable, direction for EA.

For a while now I’ve had to put up with hearing that gaming as we know it is dying. Soon enough all that will matter is 99 cent games that allow me to fling things at other things. Social gaming has also gained popularity as well as importance, at one point Zynga was reportedly worth more than EA. EA apparently took note and decided they needed to enter a market that was growing faster than a game collection during a Steam sale.

A slice wasn’t enough however; EA went all evil empire and decided they had to have the entire cake. In buying PopCap they have bought a massive part of the casual game market. Bejeweled alone has sold 50 million units across the 300 platforms on which it’s been released. In an attempt to jump on the gold-plated bandwagon EA have gone straight for the jugular and spent $750 million on a company that was founded in 2000. EA won’t stop publishing titles like Battlefield and Mass Effect but you have to wonder, after the money they are putting into PopCap, how important do EA see the casual game market? Presumably they’ll want to see a big chunk of return, so will PopCap games change?

A market that PopCap have a strong foothold in is the mobile game markets. It’s an industry that is shifting many people’s views on value in games. I know friends who don’t know the first thing about consoles yet load their iPod Touch with 59p game after 59p game. EA have released a few in the past but their games won’t be as recognisable as Bejeweled or Plants vs Zombies. They’ve purchased a very big name in the mobile market and are jumping feet firmly first into the world of impulse purchases. It’s a courageous decision considering how young the mobile market is and how it’s perceived as something that is short term.

Compared to the deal for PopCap, EA gobbling Ohai Studios was relatively low key. Bought for a supposedly low price after few bids, it’s also the more intriguing of the two deals. It represents, for me, the first true sign of where publishers are seeing gaming.

Up until now it’s seemed very much like the head of social and casual game companies were the only ones who viewed it as the future. It seemed like every week we had someone else telling us it’s the end of gaming as we know it and we need to head for Bunkerville to prepare. EA have already released their fair share of “real” Facebook games. Often these have been tie-ins for bigger games, but with the purchase of a dedicated studio it’s not difficult to imagine that EA will be upping their presence with original games in a crowded yet highly profitable market.

The interesting factor of all this is the platform itself. Facebook. Smartphones and the mobile market won’t really go anywhere, iOS and Android is just a natural evolution for phones. Facebook, however, is something that is entirely dependent on the userbase. Google+ has been gaining popularity by merit of not being Facebook. What happens when the popularity wanes, when the bubble bursts?

The gaming market is no doubt shifting. Whether we as a community want to believe It or not. Consider this: Zynga was started in 2007 and an evaluation in May of this year put them at a worth of $10 billion. Whether it is long term or not, the money is currently in Freemium games focused on social and mobile platforms, and EA are belatedly joining the party. We’ll have to see how long it takes before Activision release their Call of Duty Facebook game.