iGame Radio

The rumors had been flying fast and furious regarding a possible acquisition of iPhone games’ publisher Chillingo by Electronic Arts. So I guess it wasn’t a huge surprise when the rumor was confirmed this morning by EA itself. Though EA declined to release much additional information (such as a price), the amount quoted by Reuters is $20 million.

What’s even more interesting in this deal is the large number of assumptions that analysts and some media have been making about the relationship between Chillingo and Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds. Some analysts questioned why it was that EA didn’t purchase the IP to Angry Birds itself. Chillingo is probably best known at this time for being the publisher of Angry Birds on the iPhone and iPad. Or at least, they were. After the initial publication, Rovio went independent, and has been publishing their IP under their own publishing arm, Rovio Mobile (though looking at Angry Birds HD for iPad on the iTunes store still lists Chillingo as its publisher). Rovio has been working like mad the past few hours on its Twitter feed to assure everyone that the Angry Birds IP is still with Rovio.

So, what does this mean for EA? Last year they purchased Playfish, a start-up social gaming company, for $400 million. Along with Chillingo, they seem poised to attempt a full-on social games takeover. But since that purchase of Playfish, not much has been heard. In fact, if you go to the Playfish site, the biggest change is that EA has introduced sports titles right next to the casual social games that is the Playfish fair…rather incongruous. Somewhat like slapping EA’s label on top and hoping that things will change.