EA: Our strong IP begins new era for Facebook games

Electronic Arts’ war chest of brands and IP is transforming the nature of Facebook games, a studio executive has said.

Kristian Segerstrale, the founder of EA’s social games group Playfish, said the group’s latest release – The Sims Social – represents a new frontier in social games.

“In bringing one of EA’s most popular game franchises to Facebook, Playfish and The Sims team have redefined the meaning of social in video games,” he told MCV.

“By combining Playfish’s expertise and passion for social play with the deep creative heritage of The Sims franchise and the insights of its creators, we feel we’ve brought something very special to life – and tens of millions of players around the world have responded with extraordinary enthusiasm over the last few weeks.

“We’re looking forward to working with players to evolve the game and its features in new and exciting ways in the coming months and beyond.”

The Sims has gone from being one of the top-selling boxed games to also become one of the biggest social online titles in less than a month.

Over 40m monthly active users have flocked to the new Facebook game making it bigger than Zynga’s FarmVille. The Sims is second only to CityVille on Facebook which currently has 75m monthly active users.

Playfish is now working on a social networking title at its London studio. The publisher acquired the developer in 2009 in deal worth at least $400 million.