Social gaming company Playdom acquires Metaplace Inc.
It seems as though Playdom has added Metaplace Inc. as a Facebook friend. While earlier this year Metaplace closed up shop, Ralph Koster dangled a morsel of hope for fans by saying that "Metaplace Inc. isn't about to go away. In fact, we have some pretty exciting plans to announce in the not too distant future." Consider that "not too distant future" a present reality, as Metaplace Inc. has been purchased by social gaming company Playdom. The deal includes the transfer of the Metaplace Inc. game design group over to Playdom's domain.
Metaplace Inc. was focusing on two Facebook games, Island Life and My Vineyard, prior to its closing. Both games boast an impressive number of players: Island Life with 457,000 monthly users and My Vineyard with 822,000.
Playdom is especially excited to get their hands on Metaplace's technology. "We think the Metaplace engine is a competitive advantage in that it will take other companies years to duplicate its capabilities which will streamline and quicken our game development cycles," said David Sobeski, Playdom's CTO. Metaplace Inc.'s purchase is the latest in a string of studio acquisitions for Playdom, including Acclaim Games in May.
Metaplace's technology, team and games represent a significant step forward for Playdom, and we're interested to see how the social gaming firm handles its new toys in the future.
