It looks like assets of Warner Bros. Interactive are already being sold off to other companies. One of them is mobile game studio Playdemic, the developer of the successful Golf Clash, who was recently sold to video game giant EA. According to their press release, EA acquired the studio for an astonishing $1.4 billion. What makes this acquisition even more startling is that EA paid the insane amount in cash, which is a lot of money to be carrying around.
EA states in their press release that they’re planning to use Playdemic’s expertise to help make new mobile titles as well as utilizing Golf Clash mechanics with other IP’s. The company seems to be diving headfirst into mobile development. This point is further emphasized by the fact that EA recently acquired another mobile game developer, Glu. Playdemic’s mobile game Golf Clash has clocked in approximately 80 million downloads from both the Google Play Store and the App Store for iOS, making this acquisition a major turning point for EA.
It’s possible that EA is looking to implement these features into another major franchise that they already own, PGA Tour. The company has been the main publisher of the series since it began in 1990, and was a big player during the 1990 boom of sports games. However, the series exploded once they signed golf superstar Tiger Woods to become the face of the franchise, renaming it Tiger Woods PGA Tour and putting him on the cover of every game. The deal with Woods ended in 2013, with EA briefly signing Rory Mcillroy for the 2015 iteration.
EA has recently announced that the series would be making a comeback in 2022 with the new name of EA Sports PGA Tour, seemingly reverting back to having no specific golf star in name or on the cover. It’ll be interesting to see what EA does with Playdemic and their mobile game experience, but we wouldn’t be surprised is they have the future of PGA Tour in mind with this.