Playdom, the Silicon Valley-based social games developer, has announced its intention to try and crack Europe.
It’s planning an aggressive roll out this side of the Atlantic, aiming to create localised versions – French, Italian, German and Spanish – of its top titles, which include Mobsters, Tiki Resort and Big City Life, by the end of this year. The company’s games largely target Facebook and MySpace, although it also has offerings for iPhone and Hi5, among other platforms.
The first of Playdom’s games to be available fully localised will be Bola, a Facebook football game which brings arcade-style football to the popular social network. Already available as a beta, analytics firm Appdata lists it as the 41st most popular application on Facebook, says the company.
Playdom, which competes most directly with Zynga, is heavily funded, having recently raised $43 million at a $260 million valuation. It’s also been on somewhat of a spending spree, which has seen it acquire Facebook game developer Offbeat Creations, and developers Three Melons and Merscon. The company also invested $5 million in Facebook game developer MetroGames.
Playdom claims more than 38 million monthly active users and is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with studios in San Francisco, Calif.; Seattle, Wash.; Eugene, Ore.; Chapel Hill, NC; Buenos Aires, Argentina and in South Asia.
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