Branded Game Developer Merscom The Latest In Playdom Acquisition Spree

Sorority Life developer Playdom announced Monday the acquisition of social and casual game maker Merscom, which is known for producing branded casual games for a wide array of companies. Chapel Hill, NC-based Merscom is currently working on branded games for companies including Sea World, Purina, National Geographic and NBC Universal. Buyer Playdom plans on using that third-party branded game experience in the social gaming space. Playdom CEO John Pleasants said in a statement, "We believe that brands matter and that over time, as the social gaming industry matures, games which incorporate content from popular culture and widely respected brands will garner larger market share than those without it." He added, "Merscom has 16 years experience working with content owners and we intend to call on this experience as we move into this promising area of our industry." The companies did not disclose terms of the transaction. Before 2009, privately-held Merscom relied on external, international resources to build its games. However, last year the company added in-house engineering capabilities to begin building and producing social games internally. The first internally-created Merscom game was based on the recent film The Crazies. Merscom's core team has produced over 250 games and over 30 casual branded games, Playdom said in a statement. Founders Kirk Owen and Lloyd Melnick work with over 20 producers, designers, artists and engineers at Merscom. The Playdom and Merscom teams will collaborate on future social games. Playdom is based in Mountain View, CA., and also has studios in San Francisco, CA, Seattle, WA, Eugene, OR, Buenos Aires, Argentina and in South Asia. Since receiving $43 million in Series A funding last November, the company has been on an aggressive acquisition spree, with the acquisitions of Green Patch (Lil Green Patch), Trippert Labs (Fighter Jets), Offbeat Creations (Super Farkle) and most recently Three Melons (Bola!).