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When Electronic Arts bought up PopCap Games back in July of last year, folks made jokes about how EA would push things like Bejeweled DLC that changed the color of the gems, but the laughter contained a kernel of truth. There was always some concern that a purchase would mean PopCap employees losing their jobs. It's taken a bit, but those concerns have finally come to fruition: PopCap Dublin has been closed, leaving 96 former employees without a job.

PopCap Games still kind of owns when it comes to the casual and mobile spheres. The company, now owned by Electronic Arts, has managed to build a deal of goodwill with video games like Bejeweled, Zuma, and Peggle. They've announced that a sequel to the much beloved Plants vs. Zombies will be shambling its way to release next year "by late spring." Gird thy loins, the zombies are coming.

A few weeks ago, we reported that there were rumblings of powerhouse Electronic Arts attempting to acquire casual-but-secretly-hardcore powerhouse PopCap Games for over one billion buckaroos. Turns out the acquisition talks were true, as EA has now officially acquired PopCap for a reported $650 million in cash and $100 million in stock and a multi-year earn-out, less than the initially-reported price of around one billion.

In a release regarding the acquisition, EA CEO John Riccitiello said:

"EA and PopCap are a compelling combination. PopCap’s great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA’s momentum and accelerate our drive towards a $1 billion digital business. EA’s global studio and publishing network will help PopCap rapidly expand their business to more digital devices, more countries, and more channels."

I guess now we can all expect Bejeweled preorder DLC, am I right?

(via AllThingsD)

Various outlets are reporting that PopCap Games, essentially the casual gaming kings of the modern gaming era, are in late stage acquisition discussions with Electronic Arts for a price of over one billion dollars. You may not know PopCap Games by name, but you certainly know them by game: The makers of Bejeweled, Plants vs Zombies, Peggle, and Bookworm, to name a few. If Electronic Arts does indeed acquire PopCap for the rumored price of over one billion dollars, they would be paying a large chunk of their market cap, which is currently $7.49 billion, meaning they're making a huge bet on PopCap, but judging from PopCap's dominance of the casual gaming market, their string of top notch titles and their fantastic devotion to product quality (say what you will about casual games, but PopCap knows how to make you play their casual games instead of other ones), EA is probably making a safe bet and a smart move. One can only assume that if EA really does acquire PopCap, they will give PopCap their freedom, but make PopCap their "casual games division," so to speak, similar to how they made BioWare their "RPG division" back when EA acquired them a few years ago. Of course, one can always make the joke that if EA acquires PopCap, Bejeweled might suddenly get a bunch of $0.99 DLC packs that add new-colored gems and Plants vs Zombies may get a $2.99 DLC pack that adds a female scream when you lose a level. (via TechCrunch, 2)

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: LittleBigPlanet 2 is pretty much the premiere platform for impressive user-generated gaming content. Sorry, Minecraft. Sure, you can build models of the Earth and 16-bit computers in Minecraft, but LittleBigPlanet 2 can recreate other games--something YouTube user Makotoichio demonstrated by recreating PopCap's delightfully addictive pinball-Plinko hybrid Peggle within the boundaries of LBP2. Head on past the break to watch a larger, HD version of PeggleBigPlanet.

Yo dawg, Blizzard heard you like timesinks. So they put a timesink in your timesink so you can timesink while you timesink. Seriously. The latest dose of beta content to hit the Cataclysm servers has included some things long awaited, and some surprises. To the surprises, add that in the updated Hillsbrad foothills area of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, there are a series of quests that walk you through several games of Plants vs. Zombies Peacebloom vs. Ghouls.