Warner Bros. Sells Playdemic Mobile Games Studio For $1.4 Billion To Electronic Arts

EA logo

Gaming giant Electronic Arts just issued an announcement regarding the sale of Warner Bros. Games’ studio Playdemic. Both companies have reached an agreement to transfer Playdemic from Warner Bros. Games to Electronic Arts with $1.4 billion in cash.

Playdemic mobile games studio is the developer of the trending Golf Clash, a multiplayer golf game that allows worldwide players to compete in real-time. The well-received game has been honored by the BAFTA Games Mobile Game of the Year (2018), Mobile Games Awards Game of the Year (2018), PocketGamer.biz Game of the Year (2017), etc. And as boasted by EA, the game has marked 80 million downloads globally to date, flourishing as one of the leading mobile games in the US and UK.

The acquisition of Playdemic is a strategic move to expand on mobile growth. As revealed by Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts, “This is the next step building on our strategy to expand our sports portfolio and accelerate our growth in mobile to reach more players around the world with more great games and content.” The press suggested that the combination will lead to an addition of “more than 15 top live services across fast-growing genres.”

For the other studios that work on popular franchises such as DC, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones, they will be incorporated in Warner’s recent partnership with Discovery. “The remaining Warner Bros. Games portfolio is included in the recently announced WarnerMedia-Discovery transaction and will become part of the combined media and entertainment company after the expected close of that transaction,” the press stated.

For AT&T, the divestiture is an effective means to pay off its debt load, while Warner Bros. Games claimed it as “a part of our overall strategy to build games based on Warner Bros. storied franchises.”

While the future of WarnerMedia- Discovery is still shrouded in uncertainty, Warner Bros. Games’ response seems to guarantee that the popular franchises will continue to expand. We might expect some sort of cross-over between multiple platforms and media.

Austen Chen