Disney buys Playdom for $563m

By Tom Bramwell Published 28 July, 2010

With $200m in possible add-ons. Ding.

Disney has snapped up social game developer Playdom in a $563.2 million deal that could rise to $763.2 million based on future performance.

Playdom makes Facebook games Sorority Life and Social City and Disney has claimed its output is consumed by around 42 million players a month.

That puts it some way behind the mighty Zynga, which makes FarmVille and sees upward of 200 million participating in its games. But it's still 42 million, which used to be a lot of people.

Disney boss Robert Iger said the publisher wanted to get into social gaming and, "When deciding how to place a bet we thought we should do it at a significant level and not just take a little shot."

"Too often traditional media companies only put a toe or two in, and they deprive themselves at the opportunity for real growth," he added. Plus, who doesn't like signing a cheque for over five hundred million dollars?

Playdom consists of 15 development studios centred in California, all of which now join the Disney fold, while boss John Pleasants becomes general manager of the development group and an execcy vice president at Disney Interactive. Like a boss.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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