EA: Competition from Zynga was not a factor in PopCap acquisition

EA's Barry Cottle has told IndustryGamers the firm doesn't consider Zynga as a competitor, even with the recent acquisition of PopCap, due to Zynga's focus on Facebook offerings.

"We're playing a much bigger game [than Zynga]," he said. "We're going after the $40 billion dollar digital market, where Facebook is just a segment. We're diversifying ourselves and putting ourselves in a better position to go after that. If you look at the way we're set up, our digital revenues range across MMOs, free-to-play, social, mobile, DLC, and PopCap now adds greater franchises. At the end of the day, Facebook is just one segment.

"The company that is able to create a seamless cross-platform experience with their franchises... that's the team that wins, because people will have loyalty to great games and franchises that they can play on any connected environment. That's the game we're trying to win. Right now, they're a big Facebook player. This puts us at a strong number two, however, and I think we'll make a major dent on the Facebook side."

PopCap's John Vechey agreed with Cottle, the decision to sell the company he co-founded had nothing to with competing with Zynga, but because the "digital publishing strength of EA," would help the firm but more PopCap games in people's hands.

"I don't think of this as an answer to Zynga," he said. "It's about making great games and getting them to a lot more people and EA's the perfect partner for that.

"They wanted us because we make great games and great original IP... They want us to keep making great original PopCap games, keep doing new versions of our own IP, and really just help to get the games out to more and more people on more platforms.”