Playfish have just celebrated their 3rd Birthday.  Happy Birthday Playfish.

Yes, it’s time to go behind the doors of Playfish

Just in.  Smoking hot off the press.  We all know that social gaming is exploding in growth.  Playfish is one of those cool companies leading the charge in creating innovative, high quality and fun social games.  Great games that trip off the tongue include Restaurant City, Pirates Ahoy, Hotel City and FIFA Superstars.  The team have just released the critically acclaimed Madden Superstars.  And there is so much more to come.  Wish I could tell you more but you’ll have to wait and see.  Nice surprises to come.

But behind all the great games, what’s it like to work for Playfish?   That’s where this great video helps us wrestle open the doors of Playfish and see the faces behind the games describe their lives, challenges and fun at Playfish.

Let us know your views.

And yes……Playfish is recruiting right now.  To learn more about Playfish visit:  www.playfish.com   To look for a job at Playfish, your next stop should be:  www.jobs.ea.com

EArl

Here’s the new video:

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Have you checked in to Playfish latest sensation ‘Hotel City’?  It is taking the web by storm, as you can see from the screen shot above from ‘Inside Social Games’ insight into web traffic.

Congrats to the team at Playfish who are on fire with creativity at the moment, (and yes they are recruiting for the very best talent now…. www.jobs.ea.com).

There is a real buzz surrounding Social Gaming, not just about its tremendous growth and success to date but also about its bright future, rich with lots of unrealised potential….and this means shed loads of fun for games players across the world.  The adrenaline is really flowing at Playfish as they unleash their creative talent and their employees do what they are best at….creating fun for all.

Social gaming has been spurred by the spread of social networking, faster Internet connections and powerful mobile devices, which mean that game makers are experimenting with a host of innovations that drastically improve online play.  The internet itself has ballooned in growth from 16 million users to 1.8 billion users in the last 15 years, driven by lower barriers of entry. Facebook is by far the largest Social Network with 400m unique users, with 200m of them playing games on the platform.

So far Playfish have created 12 online games, with over 61 million loyal fans who play their games worldwide.  But what gives them real heart and energy for the future is an appreciation that they are at the start of a journey, with so much more to achieve.  Look at the growth of Social Networks, particularly Facebook.  The statistics below in the previous blog story really underline the breathtaking potential to reach out to new gamers across the world. 

Social gaming is fundamentally changing the way the games industry does business.  Gaming is moving from being a product-driven industry to being a service-driven industry, with the significant change in economics that comes along with that.  The internet is really driving major evolutions in how games are made and distributed: they’re changing from physical to digital, from products to services, from standalone experiences to social experiences, and from upfront payments to ongoing payments. That is a radical overhauling of the traditional business model.   

Social gaming is also a change in the way people traditionally play games.  Social games can be about things like cooperation and competition – arguably those are far more compelling reasons to play than the journey through some solitary quest a game designer has written, even if it’s written very well.

That core ability has created an entirely new discipline of game design, which takes game design out of the experience inside the game itself.  Rather, designers now must ask themselves, “How do we create an experience where people will want to talk outside of the game about what’s going on in the game, and bring other people into the game?” 

This means that Playfish is able to bring games to where people hang out, and not ask them to identify as gamers. It’s a huge difference to a barrier of adoption, as witnessed by 200 million uniques right now. This sense of reaching ‘friends,’ not ‘gamers,’ is critical.  This leads to a sense of “social adoption” in games. Rather than finding games through specialist game stores or dedicated game portals, you find games through friends.

Playfish has real energy about the future……..we will certainly bring you the latest news direct from the fishes mouth!

So let’s learn more about latest sensation ‘Hotel City’.  Even better, click on the link below and go play it…..

Continue reading »

Ssssshhhhhh.

I just grabbed a camera and took a peak inside the offices of Playfish in London.  Playfish are new to the EA family and live, drink and swim, social games.  More on Playfish shortly….but in the meantime….

Have a look at their offices….ssshhhhhhh…I did not take these pictures

EArl

Hello….welcome to Playfish.  The doors to the Studio

Inside a meeting room….relax

Work hard…and yes play hard.  Tough day…chill and bounce round the office…or rock out on Rockband

Office decoration…Playfish style!

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

We were very excited to announce last week that EA had acquired Playfish™, a leading creator of social network games. The acquisition accelerates EA’s position in social entertainment and strengthens its focus on the transition to digital and social gaming. Playfish will operate within EA Interactive, a division of EA focused on the web and on wireless.

To understand more about the acquisition, I provide the official news release that announced the deal.

‘EA has acquired Playfish for approximately US$275 million in cash and approximately $US25 million in equity retention arrangements. In addition, the sellers are entitled to additional variable cash consideration, up to a maximum of US$100 million, contingent upon the achievement of certain performance milestones through December 31, 2011.

“Social gaming, with its emphasis on friends and community, is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space,” said Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Interactive. “EAi has been successfully leading the charge for EA, and with the addition of proven expertise from Playfish, their broad consumer base and strong game brands, we’re moving ahead aggressively in our plans to lead in the category of cross-platform social entertainment.”

“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,” said Kristian Segerstrale, CEO and Co-founder of Playfish. “EAi’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.”

Playfish is one of the world’s largest and most respected social gaming companies with more than 150 million games installed and played worldwide on platforms such as Facebook®, MySpace™, Google™, Bebo, iPhone™ and Android. Playfish currently has over 60 million monthly active players across its ten titles – including Facebook hits Pet Society, Restaurant City, and Country Story – driving more than 1 billion game play sessions every month.

EAi is a division of EA focused on digital business, including EA Mobile™, Pogo™ and social gaming. Pogo is the #1 casual gaming destination in audience engagement across North America and Europe. And EA Mobile is the world’s #1 mobile games publisher with 34% market share in the U.S., and the leading games publisher on Apple’s App Store with such Top Paid Apps as Rock Band®, Madden NFL10, The Sims™, and Tetris®’.

© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners