EA acquires social game developer KlickNation

Electronic Arts has announced the acquisition of KlickNation, a developer of free-to-play social role-playing games (RPGs). Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

KlickNation develops and publishes games for social platforms including Facebook, having released its first game in 2009. Their title, SuperHero City, was the first social game to feature animated battles; Age of Champions introduced the first mass combat battle system in a social game; and Six Gun Galaxy uses a newly-developed engine to deliver a completely flash-based isometric game experience.

The acquisition adds to EA’s portfolio of social and “casual” digital game developers, an area of the gaming market into which EA has been expanding aggressively. A notable recent EA acquisition was PopCap Games, a company for which they splashed $750 million.

KlickNation is to become BioWare Sacramento, part of EA’s BioWare label. The team joins BioWare’s existing social gaming team at BioWare San Francisco to form a new business unit, BioWare Social, focused on the development of RPG experiences for social networks and led by former KlickNation CEO Mark Otero.

“KlickNation’s expertise in building innovative and compelling RPGs for social platforms makes them a seamless tuck-in with the BioWare team at EA,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA’s BioWare label.

“We share the same creative values. The new BioWare Social unit will bring BioWare and EA franchises to the growing audience of core gamers who are looking for high quality, rich gameplay experiences on social platforms,” said Muzyka.

“While developing social RPG experiences, we held BioWare as a role model for storytelling and game design,” said Mark Otero, General Manager, BioWare Social and co-founder of KlickNation. “Joining with BioWare and EA is an opportunity to realize our vision for bringing high-quality RPG titles to the fast-growing, highly-engaged core gamers looking for deeper experiences on social platforms.”