Playdom Looking To Expand European Audience

Social games developer Playdom plans to expand its audience in Europe with localized versions of its "top titles", starting with its recently released arcade-style soccer game Bola. The Silicon Valley-based firm didn't specify any other planned titles for this initiative, though it has a number of popular games on both Facebook and MySpace, such as Sorority Life, the Mobsters series, Tiki Resort, and many others. Playdom plans to make Bola and other games available in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. It's already released a beta version of Bola in English, and says it will have options for all of those languages "shortly". Bola, which currently has more than 3.5 million monthly active users on Facebook, according to figures from Appdata, was originally a title from Three Melons, the Argentinian developer Playdom acquired last March for an undisclosed sum. "In 2010 thus far, Playdom has acquired Offbeat Creations, Three Melons, Merscom and Acclaim," says Playdom CEO John Pleasants. "We're building a formidable line-up, and steadily increasing our free-to-play games. We're now able to make our games even more accessible throughout Europe, with Bola leading the way. He adds, "Bola is an easy-to-play soccer game where players build and manage a team, then challenge their friends to a nail-biting tournament of fast feet, devastating slide tackles and amazing goalie saves. Combining arcade play with resource management, it's one of the best football offerings on Facebook, and one we expect will be embraced by European football fans as well."