EA has expanded its social gaming empire with the purchase of KlickNation, a Facebook developer specializing in free-to-play RPGs. The acquisition will see the studio renamed to BioWare Sacramento and fused with other social game developers to create EA's newly formed BioWare Social division.
"KlickNation's expertise in building innovative and compelling RPGs for social platforms makes them a seamless tuck-in with the BioWare team at EA,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, one half of the famed 'BioWare doctors' co-founders. “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."
KlickNation is best known in Facebook circles as the makers of free-to-play (read: micro-transactioned-to-oblivion) adventures like Superhero City, Age of Champions, Starship Command and Six Gun Galaxy. It will continue to be led by KlickNation founder Mark Otero, and focus on creating “RPG experiences for social networks” under the BioWare Social banner.
This latest acquisition beefs up EA's growing list of casual game talent which includes heavy hitters like Chillingo, the publisher of Angry Birds and Cut the Rope; and PopCap Games, creator of Bejeweled, Peggle, and Zuma. Now that the company has a whole division dedicated to social games, expect to see a lot more pokes and friend requests from BioWare on your Facebook wall.
