RockYou buys Playdemic in race to catch up to larger developers

In its second acquisition in little over a month, Calif.-based social game developer RockYou says that it will buy Playdemic, VentureBeat reports, for an undisclosed amount. A development studio based in England, Playdemic is home to 16 employees, bringing RockYou's total pool of employees to 170 total. The buyout reflects the company's new strategy of developing games more quickly in 2011, said RockYou COO Lisa Marino.

Marino said in an interview that the company hopes to put out eight to 10 social games this year alone, according to VentureBeat. And RockYou has some catching up to do considering the developer didn't publish a single game in 2010, looking to Zoo World for growth. As for Playdemic, the studio's first game, Gourmet Ranch (pictured), is home to 550 thousand players, but RockYou at the moment is more concerned with bringing on teams that clearly know how to develop and publish a game, according to VentureBeat

RockYou not only has some catching up to do with itself, but with everyone else. This news creeps out from under the shadow of CityVille reaching 100 million monthly players, whose creator holds four of the top five apps on Facebook. In order to potentially compete, the company did some major restructuring in 2010. RockYou CEO Lance Tokuda stepped down last year while the company bought TirNua, a company that creates 3D Facebook games. Hopefully, RockYou's efforts will pay off in 2011. With at least eight social games on the way and two brand new development teams, the company has plenty of chances to move up in the ranks.

How do you think RockYou will fare in 2011? Do you think that with two new teams under its belt that the company can produce a hit? Speculate away in the comments. Add Comment.