Chillingo Acquired for $20 Million by Electronic Arts | Hacker News Reader

Chillingo Acquired for $20 Million by Electronic Arts

mashable.com

32 pointsjjames24 comments

Rovio is the maker of Angry Birds. They have NOT been acquired.

Chillingo is the publisher of multiple iOS games. They were acquired.

Rovio is most likely worth much more than $20m at this point.

What is the relationship between "maker" and "publisher"?

The "maker" or "developer" is Rovio, which created the app. Chillingo published the app on the app store and was responsible for marketing. Rovio still owns the IP to angry birds (The angry birds franchise is likely worth more than 20 million on its own). The value of Chillingo likely comes from the fact that it published 2 #1 hits (Angry Birds and now Cut the Rope), meaning it has a brand name with iOS gamers.

You are right. Publisher and "The company behind" do not necessarily equal "maker of". Perhaps I should have instead posted the Reuters article titled "Electronic Arts to buy Chillingo for $20 mln".

http://www.reuters.com/article/idCNN2022096920101020?rpc=44

Thanks for clarifying that. I've been scratching my head over the $20m figure for the last hour thinking it was Rovio.

This title isn't exactly accurate - the publisher was bought, not the development studio. Chillingo has published nearly 100 games on the app store.

What's the difference between a 'maker' and a 'publisher'? Anyone else confused?

What's the difference between a book writer and a book publisher?

Same thing, except for games.

Um well let's see.

The book writer creates the book. For an iPhone App that's the same as the game developer/development studio. Ok, got that.

The book publisher physically creates the finished product and distributes it wholesale. That's totally different to the world of iPhone apps/phone apps. The developer creates the finished product (the binary) not the publisher and there is no wholesale distribution, as you can only sell it through one place - the iTunes App Store.

So, your answer kind of makes no sense and doesn't move the conversation forward.

Excuse my terseness, I was responding to someone who seemed legitimately confused about the difference between game maker & publisher, I thought the analogy with books was sufficient to at least grasp the basics of the differences without being overwhelmed by specifics (and all of their exceptions).

In both cases the creator makes the primary product while the publisher packages that product in a format suitable for manufacturing or distribution, interfaces with the relevant distribution channels, handles revenue and all that, etc. The broad strokes are the same for books and for games even though the specifics are widely different.

A publisher is someone who aggregates titles from smaller developers and helps market/distribute the application. Chillingo/others like them usually have had some success with apps before and are able to reach out to their massive base as soon as a game is released to enable the apps to rise through rankings faster. Also, developers who live in countries where the app store is not available are able to work with publishers to get their apps distributed across the world.

In the iphone world, publishers are mainly there to do the marketing spend and efforts. Sometimes they pay for development before release.

On a related note, does anyone have any details on the sort of deals Chillingo works out with developers? E.g. how much do you pay them and what do they actually do?

I know they've published a number of top 50 apps, but I'm curious as to what cost.

It's usually a revenue split of around 60-40 in favor of the developer.

Earlier I wondered where a multiplayer game like this (I know Worms, it is quite different) is. It would be fantastic round-based time-stealer. Pass the device around or even play by sms or over the net. It does not even have to be realtime. $$$ idea? :-)

Here is the deal:

Rovio is still independent.

They used Chillingo as a publisher and thus they are obligated to pay Chillingo 50% of the profits for Angry Birds.

EA has purchased Chillingo and thus rights to 50% of Angry Birds's future profits.

I've read it is much more like 10%

50% seems like an obscene amount to give someone just to promote an IPhone app. Especially when having the app featured on iTunes is the best promo you can get and that's Apple's call.

If other acquisitions are any indication, there will be only one or two Chillingo people remaining at EA in two years.

I would frame it more positively: "EA has a knack for talent retention when it comes to front-desk receptionists."

angry birds shows the importance of branding.

essentially it's a crash the castle type of game which are a dime a dozen...but by branding themselves they managed to get the success they've got

And by creating an incredibly polished, good-looking, easy to use, accessible game. Every part of Angry Birds was clearly tested and iterated on until it was perfect.

Half Life 2 is just another first person shooter, they're a dime a dozen. Doesn't mean it was easy to make.

Anyone else surprised? I'm not being sarcastic. Hasn't Angry Birds already made > $20 million? If not, isn't it close enough?

It's likely somewhere around 7-8 million, give or take. And, I have a feeling alot of that goes to Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds.

So, I guess EA's in-house "8lb. Gorilla" homegrown studio and mini-publisher for smartphones was stillborn, so they acquired one. Smart move. Chillingo has had a load of #1 app store hits from various developers; they seem to know how to pick 'em.

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