KlickNation acquired by EA, renamed BioWare Sacramento

Electronic Arts is slowly becoming a giant katamari of social gaming companies. Mere months after acquiring PopCap, the company has announced that it has acquired KlickNation, a developer of free-to-play social role-playing games.

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Electronic Arts is slowly becoming a giant katamari of social gaming companies. Mere months after acquiring PopCap, the company has announced that it has acquired KlickNation, a developer of free-to-play social role-playing games. KlickNation will be rolled into its BioWare label, and the company will be renamed BioWare Sacramento. The newly acquired team will join BioWare's existing social gaming team in San Francisco to form BioWare Social, which will be focused on the development of RPG experiences for social networks. Former KlickNation CEO Mark Otero will head the combined effort.

While KlickNation may not have the same kind of recognition as the Zyngas of the world, it has launched four games for Facebook since its inception in 2009: Superhero City (pictured above), Age of Champions, Starship Command, and Six Gun Galaxy. According to EA, the company was "known for combining in-depth storylines with high-quality graphics."

“KlickNation’s expertise in building innovative and compelling RPGs for social platforms makes them a seamless tuck-in with the BioWare team at EA,” BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka said in a press release. “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.”

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 1, 2011 5:00 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, KlickNation acquired by EA, renamed BioWare Sacramento.

    Electronic Arts is slowly becoming a giant katamari of social gaming companies. Mere months after acquiring PopCap, the company has announced that it has acquired KlickNation, a developer of free-to-play social role-playing games.

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      December 1, 2011 5:11 PM

      They are trying to leverage the BioWare name to the point of snapping. It's retarded.

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        December 1, 2011 6:12 PM

        As of October 2011, the BioWare group consists of six studios: BioWare Edmonton, BioWare Austin, BioWare Mythic, BioWare Montreal, BioWare Ireland,[3] and BioWare San Francisco (formerly EA2D). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioWare

        It's like they're repeating EA's bad habit of throwing "EA" in front of all of their studios' names. "Wait, the BioWare brand has more leverage! QUICK! Start calling studios BioWare! GO GO GO!!"

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          December 1, 2011 8:35 PM

          Pretty well and BioWare Ireland is a fucking call center for ToR.

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        December 1, 2011 6:16 PM

        Yup. Actually, I'm surprised they didn't roll it up into PopCap. Seems like a more logical move.

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        December 2, 2011 7:52 AM

        Yeah I'm worried now. EA is trying hard to remove everything that made Bioware great. :(

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      December 1, 2011 5:32 PM

      [deleted]

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        December 1, 2011 8:37 PM

        Being eaten by EA can be a blessing and a curse. When the blessings come it's nice to have all the resources and marketing in your corner, but the curse part is a motherfucking nightmare. A long time developer who was quite high up in a company EA bought a few years ago told me he left when he realized that no matter what anyone said or thought about how development should go, ultimately at EA marketing runs the entire company and listens only to themselves.

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          December 1, 2011 8:41 PM

          Hopefully one day that fucks them over, I just don't see it happening anytime soon.

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        December 2, 2011 7:34 AM

        Congrats or prayers?
        Which would employees from Origin or Westwood Studios pick, I wonder.

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      December 1, 2011 8:08 PM

      i think im going to puke

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      December 1, 2011 8:43 PM

      After seeing how many companies EA has fucked over, why would anyone let EA buy them?

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        December 2, 2011 7:25 AM

        moneyhats for the executives?

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      December 2, 2011 7:26 AM

      [deleted]

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