Electronic Arts will purchase Chillingo, the publisher behind the blockbuster game “Angry Birds” in an effort to boost their mobile gaming catalog.
The software company will pay around $19 million for Chillingo.
EA has confirmed, however, that they will not get the intellectual property rights to “Angry Birds,” which was developed by the Finnish company Rovio Mobile.
One analyst was surprised by the purchase because it lacked the IP for Angry Birds: “I’m kind of wondering what they bought,” says Todd Mitchell, a Kaufman Bros analyst, via Reuters. “But in light of EA not getting the IP, they’re buying the development platform to put their own IP on it in hopes of driving social networking and customers back to their own properties.”
Chillingo’s other popular game is “iDracula,” a shooter available for iOS devices.
Concludes EA: “By acquiring Chillingo, EA Mobile is increasing its market leadership on the Apple platform as well as reaffirming its position as the world’s leading wireless entertainment publisher.”
Result for: s entertainment
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Microsoft’s Xbox Live service brought in $1.2 billion revenue for the fiscal 2009 year.
For the year ended June 30th, about 12.5 million Xbox Live users paid an annual fee to play games online which Bloomberg says would account for about $600 million in revenue. Xbox Live COO Dennis Durkin says on top of that, sales of DLC, movies and TV topped subscription revenue for the first time ever, and by a significant margin, leading us to the final $1.2 billion figure.
Success with Xbox Live is key to Microsoft’s Entertainment division, which has seen slow sales of Zune media players, slow smartphone sales, and a barely profitable Xbox 360 console, which sees most of its profit from software and accessory sales.
Adds Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft: “Xbox Live has helped sell a lot of consoles and created a lot of loyalty. Everyone has been talking about Microsoft’s inability to innovate, but this is a pretty good example where they have innovated. They timed it just right with this one.”
If accurate, revenue would have jumped from $800 million in 2008, a pretty hefty increase.
Result for: s entertainment
The blockbuster Modern Warfare 2 has crushed all previous entertainment sales records, with a five-day $550 million USD launch, making it the biggest in history.
The game beat out all previous five-day records for the entertainment industry, including videogames, movies and books.
MW2 surpassed Grand Theft Auto IV, which had sales totaling $500 million. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince grossed $394 million in its five-day launch, making it the best movie launch of all time.
“In just five days of sell through, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has become the largest entertainment launch in history and a pop culture phenomenon,” added Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. “The title’s success redefines entertainment as million of consumers have chosen to play Modern Warfare 2 at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media.”
