EA Buys Napster Creator's Social Networking Firm

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In what is quite possibly the briefest announcement to ever come out of Electronic Arts, the publisher today revealed its purchase of the game-oriented social networking company ThreeSF for an undisclosed sum.

Founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, ThreeSF's first project was Rupture, a site that allows users to track achievements earned in Xbox 360 games as well as coordinate World of Warcraft (PC) activity. While terms of the deal were not provided, earlier rumors suggested a $30 million price tag and that Fanning would join EA.

The acquisition marks the latest community-oriented move for EA, which has made multiple efforts to build and strengthen its game-related communities through in-game features and websites, as demonstrated by the video sharing aspect of EA Black Box's Skate (PS3, X360).

The whole of EA's extremely brief announcement follows:

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced it has acquired ThreeSF, Inc., a social network for gamers. Financial terms were not disclosed. More information about EA's plans for ThreeSF will be available in the weeks ahead.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 3, 2008 10:35 PM

    Saw this on techcrunch a while ago (hate that site, but they do break news) - I wonder what technology/IP his company had that warranted 30+ M from EA? You'd think EA could duplicate a social network that tracked achievements?

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      June 3, 2008 11:35 PM

      a month ago... yeah.. (i read it for hte same reason but kinda like it...)
      but yeah, why was this worth 30 million dollars. i'm interested to know as well...

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      June 4, 2008 1:26 AM

      hm.. looking at the site, it seems pretty awesome.

      i'm guessing EA just decided to go with someone that knew what they were doing rather than try to play catchup. see: EA Downloader / EA Link. don't we wish they would have just shoveled it off to Steam?

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        June 4, 2008 3:32 AM

        awesome?

        looks bland..

        • reply
          June 4, 2008 3:53 PM

          It's in closed beta. Cut it some slack.

    • reply
      June 4, 2008 6:59 AM

      Yeah, we reported on the rumor back then, but now it's official!

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