PopCap Games pops up in San Francisco

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Mar 15, 2006 3:57 pm PT

Casual-games developer opens new studio headed up by former senior producer at Electronic Arts' pogo.com.

As evidenced by the appearance of PopCap Games like Bejeweled 2 and Feeding Frenzy on Microsoft's Xbox 360 Live Marketplace, casual games are increasingly invading spaces traditionally reserved for core gamers. In similar fashion, PopCap this week announced that it is opening up a new California development studio, a metaphorical stone's throw from the likes of Electronic Arts and Sega, in San Francisco's SoMa district. The new studio joins PopCap's operations in Dublin, Ireland and Seattle, Washington, and will be managed by Dave Rohrl, former senior producer at EA's casual-gaming service, pogo.com. The studio opened with five employees, but PopCap says it's looking to expand the staff to 15 in the near future.

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runstalker
Posted Mar 16, 2006 11:54 am PT

That funsta.com from Codemasters is p-cool too, if assloads of mini games are your sort of thing.
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jsd
Posted Mar 16, 2006 10:21 am PT

in the past year and a half, i've logged more time on popcap titles than all the other developers put together.
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gameloverx
Posted Mar 16, 2006 9:27 am PT

they should have more companies
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o_sausage
Posted Mar 16, 2006 7:52 am PT

5?!?!?!?!?!?!?
5 employes microsoft has to pay to make $5-$10 games tat's kinda cool
imagine if one game catches on like geometry wars that would be 70,000 downloads and they would only have to pay 5 people
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ReyWing
Posted Mar 16, 2006 7:06 am PT

How come no one is workn on a Sodoku-type game? If someone is, well I dont know about it. That'd get picked up like wildfire.
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skitzocyko
Posted Mar 16, 2006 5:46 am PT

great games. how about bookworm for the 360!?!
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Kitsune1
Posted Mar 15, 2006 8:27 pm PT

Nah, I hope Mitchell's lawsuit will go into affect
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echhith
Posted Mar 15, 2006 7:26 pm PT

cool representing the bay, where they get hyphy. =) haha thizz is what it is haha
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RunnerGunner480
Posted Mar 15, 2006 6:29 pm PT

Hopefully more XBL Arcade games soon!
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Nintendo_Man
Posted Mar 15, 2006 6:20 pm PT

They certainly are continuing to do well, i too been playing pop cap games for a number of years.
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BurningWreck
Posted Mar 15, 2006 5:18 pm PT

Popcap will make much better use of that office space than someone who has a sock puppet selling you dog food!
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EvilChckn
Posted Mar 15, 2006 5:08 pm PT

popcap.com for all their fun games, btw
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benifit0fadoubt
Posted Mar 15, 2006 5:05 pm PT

this will be awsome i'd easily pay 5 dollars to be awble to play a popcap game online with ranking clans and other live features
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xaos
Posted Mar 15, 2006 4:15 pm PT

Why not, there is still a huge excess of unfilled office space from failed dot coms
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Mada_Nniuq
Posted Mar 15, 2006 4:15 pm PT

Im a gamer and i played popcap games b4 they started going on cell phones and 360s and stuff.
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ryan191919
Posted Mar 15, 2006 4:11 pm PT

Yay, the Bay Area needs more game companies.
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