EA Buys Social Network Game Developer Playfish

EA today announced it has purchased Playfish, a developer of social networking site games, in a deal worth $300 million, with another $100 million upon completion of certain milestones.

Playfish boasts more than 150 million installations and over 60 million active players with over a billion play sessions per month between its ten games--with such titles as Restaurant City, Quiztastic! and Bowling Buddies--across Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, iPhone and other platforms.

"Social gaming... is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space," said Barry Cottle, general manager of EA's web and mobile-focused division EA Interactive in a press statement.

"We can't wait to start exploring social versions of some of the well-loved franchises that this combination brings to us," Playfish CEO Kristian Segerstrale teases on its blog.

Previous casual-focused purchases by EA include browser game portal Pogo.com in 2001 and mobile developer Jamdat Mobile--renamed EA Mobile--in 2005.