PopCap Does a dEAl With the Devil

If you've been following the rumours after the leak from an ex-viral marketer, you'll know that EA has plans to buy out a company, and one that "people will be upset with". Well, the most recent victim of EA's vampiric strategies is PopCap. If you're not familiar with PopCap, they're the indie developers behind Plants Vs. Zombies, that game your mother sometimes plays on her iPhone. Although I'm sad PopCap's taken the nose-dive to creative suffocation, it's a better alternative to the other rumours: Rockstar was a particuarly popular one. Could you imagine? GTA V would be released with one square mile of playable area, everything else would be locked on-disc.

Actually, you know what? Pretty sure PopCap makes up 90% of the demos I got with my 360.

So EA is trying to get a hold on the casual market. Not bad from a marketing strategy point-of-view, awful from an anything else point-of-view. DragonAge 2 had a Facebook game, so don't think this is all predictions, EA is trying to break ground with the stay-at-home Mum market. We're gonna be seeing a lot more Shepperd and Ezio on iPhone and Facebook.

You get your hopes up that the industry hasn't forgotten about the hardcore audience when you get news like Dark Souls on PC, then EA waltzes over and proceeds to drop its trousers and let off the foulest fart right in your God-damn face. Next year's Spike VGA's will have a smartphone category, mark my words.

Well, at least they're more literate than EA customer support.