EA: We're Playing a 'Much Bigger Game' than ZyngaEA was already a force to be reckoned with in the digital space, but with the addition of PopCap, the publisher has definitely been given an extra shot in the arm. It could be argued that Zynga is EA's top competitor now, but if you ask EA, the company's ambitions go way beyond Zynga. It's clear than Zynga's overly reliant upon Facebook, while EA's looking at all platforms, and that's how EA will grow, EAi Executive VP Barry Cottle tells IndustryGamers.
"We're playing a much bigger game [than Zynga]. We're going after the $40 billion dollar digital market, where Facebook is just a segment. We're diversifying ourselves and putting ourselves in a better position to go after that. If you look at the way we're set up, our digital revenues range across MMOs, free-to-play, social, mobile, DLC, and PopCap now adds greater franchises. At the end of the day, Facebook is just one segment," Cottle said during our phone interview.
"The company that is able to create a seamless cross-platform experience with their franchises... that's the team that wins."
"I don't think people are going to be talking about [just] Facebook gaming or mobile gaming – they're going to be talking about playing their favorite games across any and all digital platforms. The company that is able to create a seamless cross-platform experience with their franchises... that's the team that wins, because people will have loyalty to great games and franchises that they can play on any connected environment. That's the game we're trying to win. Right now, they're a big Facebook player. This puts us at a strong number two, however, and I think we'll make a major dent on the Facebook side."
IndustryGamers also chatted with PopCap founder John Vechey, who said that Zynga really didn't factor into this acquisition at all. "What's relevant to us is we're trying to get to every single person in the world playing a PopCap game. We can now take advantage of the digital publishing strength of EA to help us get there. I don't think of this as an answer to Zynga. It's about making great games and getting them to a lot more people and EA's the perfect partner for that," he remarked.
So now that PopCap has joined the EA family, we asked the executives if PopCap will stick to its IP or if they'll lend a hand with other established EA IP and help to bring those games to a more casual audience. Vechey jokingly responded, “They've already asked us to finish Battlefield 3 and Star Wars!” (referring to the BioWare MMO).
He then more candidly answered, "They wanted us because we make great games and great original IP. They're already great at making Hasbro games, for example. They're already great at publishing games with Chillingo and Playfish and The Sims is going to be amazing [on Facebook]. So they're great at all of that, but what they haven't invested in yet is great new original IP in the casual space... and it's not that they don't have the talent there, but it's just not what they've done. And so to buy PopCap, whose whole focus is to create original IP, and then have them adapt [EA] IP wouldn't make much sense. They want us to keep making great original PopCap games, keep doing new versions of our own IP, and really just help to get the games out to more and more people on more platforms.”
Cottle agreed, telling us, "What we don't really own, quite frankly, is really strong casual IP and that's what's been driving the fastest growing digital market in social and mobile gaming. And these guys [PopCap] are the Pixar of that. So in terms of diversifying and bringing the best IP that's out there across the board into our fold, these guys have that and that's why we're so excited to bring them onboard."
