News has just broken that Facebook power-player King.com has acquired mobile developer Fabrication Games in an effort to establish a presence on iOS and Android devices. Don’t feel bad if you don’t recognize the Fabrication name, they’re a smaller studio (only 12 employees) based in Sweden. The company has published a few smaller-scale games such as Bugfest and The Game Trail, but are still looking for their first big App Store hit.
News has just broken that Facebook power-player King.com has acquired mobile developer Fabrication Games in an effort to establish a presence on iOS and Android devices. Don’t feel bad if you don’t recognize the Fabrication name, they’re a smaller studio (only 12 employees) based in Sweden. The company has published a few smaller-scale games such as Bugfest and The Game Trail, but are still looking for their first big App Store hit.
In many ways the acquisition looks to be a “me too” move by King.com as they watch competitors such as Zynga and EA move into the mobile space. King.com has a very strong Facebook presence, largely due to the success of Bubble Witch Saga, which we assume will be the first mobile game published under the new arrangement. It helps that both King.com and Fabrication are based in Sweden, which should make collaboration a bit easier than if this were an international partnership. Still, partnering with a largely unproven team to create games on a new platform is quite a bold move.
Then again, King.com’s foray into mobile might be an attempt to inflate the company’s upcoming IPO, planned for some time in 2013. Rumor has it King.com has their eye on a NASDAQ listing, and we’re guessing that being able to say you’re both a Facebook and mobile publisher does wonders for your stock price. In any case, we send out our congratulations to both companies and wish them well as they attempt to crack the iOS and Android code.
