日前，美国第二大电子游戏发行商电子艺届公司（Electronic Arts，简称EA）宣布收购手机游戏发行商Chillingo公司，目前尚未公布交易额，但据知情人透露，该收购应该会以2000万美元以下的现金成交。

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据悉，EA去年还以4亿美元收购了社交游戏开发商Playfish（其中1亿美元是基于财务表现的额外对价），伴随该举动的是EA今年4月宣布将削减1500人的裁员声明，本次收购再次证明了EA对在线游戏运营模式的日益重视。

但让不少行业分析家大为意外的是，EA本次对Chillingo的收购，并不包含后者所发行游戏《愤怒鸟》的知识产权，该游戏知识产权仍属于芬兰开发商Rovio公司。

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考夫曼兄弟公司（Kaufman Bros）的分析师托德·米切尔（Todd Mitchell）表示自己很想知道EA究竟买到了什么，“从EA并不享有Chillingo有关游戏的知识产权来看，他们可能意在收购一个现成的开发平台，推出自己的知识产权，以吸引那些社交游戏网站和客户上门。”

EA拥有《荣誉勋章》（Medal of Honor）和《Madden NFL》等游戏的专属经营权，可以将通过新型社交游戏渠道推广原创品牌，效仿迪士尼收购Playdom（今年7月成交，收购价格为5.63亿美元）的做法，将自己的ESPN品牌植入Facebook游戏《ESPNU College Town》。

EA在收购声明中表示，“收购Chillingo公司，EA Mobile本身作为世界领先的无线娱乐发行商的地位不会改变，同时将扩大EA在苹果平台上的市场领导权……”

一些分析家认为，EA在社交游戏领域可能砸下了太多钱，因为这一新兴市场虽然存在潜力，但还比较分散，也没有稳当的营收来源。

据了解，手机和社交游戏是电子游戏行业中发展最迅速的领域，市场调研公司Gartner预计，全球手机游戏今年营收将增长19%，超过56亿美元，2014年总营收将达114亿美元。

另悉，《愤怒鸟》截止今年8月，已在苹果平台售出650万份，该游戏近日投放Android平台后，短短两天内便斩获200万下载量。Chillingo本月还发行了俄罗斯游戏工作室ZeptoLab开发的《怪物吃糖果》（Cut the Rope），该游戏在App Store露脸的头十天便创造100万份销量。据报道，这两款游戏都不在本次收购范围内。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

Electronic Arts to buy mobile game publisher

Electronic Arts said it plans to buy the publisher of “Angry Birds,” one of the most popular games on Apple’s iPhone, pushing the second largest U.S. video game publisher deeper into the hot mobile games market.

A source close to the deal told Reuters EA will pay under $20 million in cash plus other undisclosed considerations.

An EA spokeswoman confirmed the deal, but did not disclose the financial terms. Under the deal, EA will not receive the intellectual property rights to “Angry Birds,” which will remain under Rovio, the Finnish company that developed the game, the company said.

Some analysts were surprised that EA would not acquire “Angry Birds”. Neither company commented on what games or intellectual property would be included in the terms.

“I’m kind of wondering what they bought,” said Todd Mitchell, a Kaufman Bros analyst. “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.”

Electronic Arts, which owns Medal of Honor and Madden NFL franchises, can push its established brands through new social games in the same way that Disney, which bought social gaming company Playdom for $563.2 million in July, has used with its ESPN brand in the ESPNU College Town game for Facebook.

Chillingo publishes other mobile games but none have been quite as successful as “Angry Birds,” which allows players to help angry birds destroy pigs with a huge slingshot in various game stages.

“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,” EA spokeswoman Holly Rockwood said in a statement.

EA might be spending too much on social games, a nascent market that has potential, but fragmented and does not have a proven revenue stream, some analysts said.

“The concern is that EA is chasing and paying a lot of money,” Kaufman Bros analyst Todd Mitchell said.

Mobile and social games are the fastest growing segments of the video game industry. Research firm Gartner expects global revenue from mobile gaming, the segment that includes games for smartphones, to rise 19 percent to more than $5.6 billion this year, while it is forecast to grow to $11.4 billion in 2014.

EA’s mobile division already holds some top titles, like Tetris, Scrabble and versions of Tiger Woods PGA tour and Need for Speed.

Last November, EA purchased Playfish, a start-up company that makes social games, in a deal valued at up to $400 million.（source:reuters）