Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) on Tuesday announced that the company will be acquiring PopCap Games. The acquisition is priced at $650 Million plus $100 Million stock and multi-year Earn-Out. EA has been busy acquiring upcoming and established game developers and publishers from the mobile gaming industry.

The gaming giant recently acquired Chillingo and Firemint, both companies have produced highly successful titles for iPhone and iPad. PopCap Games have some of the most addictive games to their credit which include but not limited to Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, and Zuma.

John Riccitiello, CEO of EA, in a press release said:

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.

EA is clearly expanding its portfolio and wants to capture the casual gaming market which has proved to be highly successful in the mobile segment.

PopCap Games is looking at taking advantage of EA’s resources to scale their games and services to deliver more casual fun to an even bigger audience according to David Roberts, CEO of PopCap.

Mobile gaming industry is still in its evolutionary stage and EA is certainly being aggressive in making sure they stay ahead in the coming years. It will be interesting to see who is EA’s next target!

iOS 5 will support AirPlay mirroring which means that you will be able to mirror your iPad 2’s display using AppleTV over WiFi without any cords. This is a great feature for anyone who wants to enjoy their favorite games on a large TV screen.

Firemint, the developers behind Flight Control and Real Racing have always been quick to adopt Apple’s latest offerings for game developers. Whether its Game Center with voice chat or AirPlay, Firemint has moved quickly to adopt the latest technology and offer it as a free update.

Engadget recently posted a hands on with Real Racing 2 HD which supports Apple’s AirPlay mirroring in iOS 5. The developers have gone a little further and not just optimized the game for your HDTV but have integrated a dual screen experience.

AirPlay offered a seamless gaming experience without a single hiccup — surprising, considering iOS 5 just hit beta last week.

When you turn on AirPlay mirroring and launch Real Racing 2 HD the game will turn your iPad 2 into a controller and the entire game can be enjoyed in 1080p on your HDTV. We really like the implementation and believe that games that depend on the accelerometer can take true advantage of the new feature as you can have your eyes fixed on the TV rather than looking at your iPad which kind of defeats the purpose.

We will certainly see more developers coming forward with unique implementation of AirPlay mirroring with their games. Are you excited about mirroring your iPad’s display on your HDTV? Have your say in the comments below.

EA has been busy acquiring iPhone game developers and publishers to strengthen its presence in the mobile space. They recently acquired Chillingo one of the most successful game publishers on the App Store and today Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced an agreement to acquire Firemint.

Firemint, Australia based iOS developers, have produced some of the most successful titles on the App Store. They defined the line drawing genre on the App Store with Flight Control and then produced the best racing game on the App Store, called Real Racing. To capitalise on the widely praised racing game Firemint released Real Racing 2 which proved to be an instant hit and has been featured on most “must have games list.”

EA is gearing up to make sure they maintain the lead in digital interactive entertainment platforms like the smartphones and tablets.

No financial details were disclosed. Barry Cottle, Executive Vice President and General Manger of EA Interactive said:

The Firemint team is remarkable for its critical and commercial success,

Having them as part of EAi will accelerate our position as worldwide leader in game development for mobile devices and online gaming platforms.

This is great news for Firemint and we wish them the very best.

Flight Control Update Details

Firemint announces the Flight Control updates you’ve been asking for!

Online high scores, new maps and save game features will extend the most addictive game on iPhone

Firemint has announced some details about its highly anticipated updates to Flight Control. The developer has been carefully designing new features to build on the charm, simplicity and addictiveness of the original. Since its launch on 6 March 2009, Flight Control has gathered a large and enthusiastic fan base, and the updates will deliver on the most popular requests.

The first update will deliver:

• Online highscores – by far the most requested feature, Flight Control will receive online leaderboards with a simple but clever design, to cater for many of the different ways people are playing. Firemint will use its cloudcell.com technology to go beyond a simple list of names and high scores and offer location based leaderboards and a skill based ranking system. Cloudcell.com has already been used in I-Play’s Fast & Furious game and will also be used in Firemint’s upcoming title Firemint Real Racing.
• Save game – if the app exits mid-game (for example, closing with the Home button or receiving a phone call) the player will be able to pick up exactly where they left off.

Firemint will follow up with future updates to add new airports and aircraft to the game. “As long as people keep buying the game and loving it, we will keep supporting it” said Robert Murray, CEO of Firemint. “We’re putting in place a framework that will allow us to add new content more quickly in the future.”

Firemint hopes the first update will be available on the App Store by 24 April. Flight Control is currently available at the opening sale price of US0.99 cents.

About Firemint

Founded in 1999, Firemint employs 40 people and is based in Melbourne, Australia. The company has a strong background in mobile game development and has had 29 titles published to date. Notable mobile titles include EA Sports Madden NFL 3D (07, 08 and 09), The Fast and the Furious: Fugitive and The Fast and the Furious: Pink Slip, FIA World Rally Championship and The Sims DJ (iPod). Firemint is an independent developer focused on the development of digitally distributed titles, and is owned and managed by CEO and founder Robert Murray. The company’s original titles Firemint Real Racing (iPhone) and Mega Monsters (N-Gage), currently in development, are highly anticipated.

Review

Firemint’s new casual game “Flight Control” is an awesome game with very simple yet extremely addictive gameplay.

- Incredibly simple, but amazingly engaging.
– Experience all the glamor of the golden era of aviation.
– Beautiful graphics and animation.
– Play in-game sound or listen to your own iTunes music.
– 4 different aircraft including helicopters.
– Play to improve your high score or statistics.
– Insanely addictive ‘one more go’ gameplay.

Flight Control gives you total control over LA’s air space with the touch of a finger!

The objective of Flight Control is to be able to control the Air Traffic by simply drawing a path for the Aircrafts and Helicopters to land on the runway or helipad. The game begins with an aerial view of the two runways and one helipad. The aircrafts start appearing on the screen from random directions (red color exclamation mark pointing out the location) and you have to trace it’s path to the runway. As you successfully keep landing these aircrafts the speed and the number keeps increasing.

The game becomes very engaging as you can change the path drawn to avoid collision with other aircrafts, giving you complete control and the ability to trace endless alternate paths.

Flight Control becomes quite challenging and great fun as you score higher and try to improve you stats.

I highly recommend buying Flight Control, it will surely keep you engaged for a long time!

Price $0.99 (Sale), Actual $2.99

The Good

• Very addictive
• Replay value high

The Not So Good

• Only one map (could be more challenging with buildings around)
• Online scoreboard is missing.

Flight Control Screenshots