Playdom was an online

social network game A social network game (sometimes simply referred to as a social media game, social gaming, social video game or online social game) is a type of online game that is played through social networks or social media. They typically feature multiplayer ...

developer popular on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Google+ Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

and Myspace. The company was founded in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

graduates Ling Xiao and Chris Wang and

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

graduate Dan Yue. In 2009, the market for games played on

social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

sites was valued at $300 million, consisting mostly of online sales of virtual goods. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of

Disney Interactive Disney Interactive is an American video game and internet company that oversaw various websites and interactive media owned by The Walt Disney Company. History 1995–1996: Formation and beginnings In December 1994, Disney announced that it wa ...

, itself a division of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

. On September 1, 2016, Disney announced the closure of the remaining Playdom games, '' Marvel: Avengers Alliance'' and its mobile sequel at the end of the month, effectively shuttering the studio.

History

On November 12, 2009, Playdom acquired Green Patch and Trippert Labs. In September 2009, competitor Zynga initiated a trade secrets lawsuits against Playdom and 22 other rivals, including Green Patch. These lawsuits were finally settled in November 2010, less than 4 months after Disney's acquisition of Playdom in July 2010. On March 31, 2010, Playdom announced the acquisition of Argentina-based online game developer Three Melons for an undisclosed amount. In April 2010, Playdom closed all but one of the games from the Green Patch studio six months post-acquisition. On April 26, 2010, Playdom announced the acquisition of Merscom, a North Carolina-based social game developer. On May 19, 2010, they acquired

Acclaim Games Acclaim Games Incorporated was an American video game company that offered free massively multiplayer online role-playing games on its website upon registration. The company was founded in 2006 and was the successor to Acclaim Entertainment in ...

. On June 7, 2010, Playdom announced the acquisition of gaming developer Hive7 after a $33 million funding round. This marked Playdom's sixth acquisition over the prior year. On July 8, 2010, Playdom announced it acquired Metaplace, Inc. The pricing of the deal was not disclosed. On July 27, 2010,

acquired Playdom in a $763 million deal. Disney initially paid $563 million for Playdom, which was the No. 3 social game company with about 42 million monthly players at the time of the acquisition. The deal also included a further $200 million in additional payments if Playdom achieves certain growth thresholds. In May 2011, Playdom has been ordered by the Federal Trade Commission to pay $3 million in fines for collecting and disclosing children's information without parental approval. In April 2014, Playdom announced the closure of all online games on the Playdom site, including ''Gardens of Time'', ''Marvel: Avengers Alliance'', ''Kitchen Scramble'', ''Pirates of the Caribbean: Isles of War'', ''Ghosts of Mistwood'', ''Disney City Girl'', and ''Disney Words of Wonder''. The games closed on April 25, 2014.

RockYou RockYou was a company that developed widgets for MySpace and implemented applications for various social networks and Facebook. Since 2014, it has engaged primarily in the purchases of rights to classic video games; it incorporates in-game ads an ...

acquired the Facebook games ''Gardens of Time'', ''Words of Wonder'', and ''Disney City Girl'' (renamed to ''City Girl Life''). On September 1, 2016, Disney Interactive Media Group announced the end of '' Marvel: Avengers Alliance'' and its mobile-only sequel, ''Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2'', bringing a close to the studio.

Games

''Gardens of Time'' was the most successful Facebook game created by Playdom, with a peak of 17 million monthly active users and 4 million daily active users.

Sold Games

The following games were sold to

between April and October 2014. *''Disney City Girl'' (now renamed "''City Girl Life''") *''Disney Words of Wonder'' (now renamed "''Words of Wonder''") *''Gardens of Time'' *''Kitchen Scramble''

Discontinued games

*''Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon (GotG)'' *''

Social City ''Social City'' was a real-time city-building simulation game developed in association with American studio PushButton Labs and published by Playdom. ''Social City'' was released as an application for Facebook and the iPhone. The iPhone version ...

'' – A casual strategy game in which the player develops a city. ''Social City'' won the 2010 Game Developers Choice Online Award for Best Social Network Game. Inside Social Games rated ''Social City'' as the #2 Best Facebook Game of the first half of 2010. ''Social City'' also received an honorable mention on Gamasutra's list of the Top 5 Facebook Social Games in 2010. Gamezebo rated ''Social City'' at 3.5 out of 5, highlighting balanced gameplay and "adorable" graphics. However, it was criticized for its lack of complexity: "Once you’ve mastered the game’s ecosystem of manufacturing/residential/leisure, all you’ll be doing is visiting your town to keep this balance in check and grow your city. Growing your city remains exciting throughout, but by the time you hit level 15 or so you just start wishing there was something more." Social City was closed on December 20, 2011. *''Armies of Magic'' *''Big City Life'' *''Blackwood & Bell Mysteries'' *''Bloodlines'' *''Bola'' *''Botkin's Hidden Cove'' *''City of Wonder'' *''Deep Realms'' *''Disney Animal Kingdom Explorers'' *''Disney Dream Kingdom'' *''Disney Ghosts of Mistwood'' *''Disney Gnome Town'' *''Disney Hidden Worlds'' *''Disney Club Penguin: Card-Jitsu Snow'' *''ESPNU College Town'' *''ESPN Return Man'' *''ESPN Sports Bar & Grill'' *''Fanglies'' *''Fish Friends'' *''Full Bloom'' *'' The Incredible Machine'' *''(Lil) Farm Life'' *''

(Lil) Green Patch ''(Lil) Green Patch'' was a Facebook applications#Platform, Facebook application developed by Ashish Dixit and David King that simulated a small garden on a Facebook user's profile. By tending their and their friends' gardens, the Facebook users ...

'' *''Market Street'' *'' Marvel: Avengers Alliance'' *'' Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2'' *''Marvel: Avengers Alliance Tactics'' *''Mobsters - Facebook'' *''Mobsters - MySpace'' *''Mobsters: Overdrive'' *''Mobsters 2: Vendetta'' *''Mobsters: Criminal Empire'' *''My Vineyard'' *''NBA Dynasty'' *''Pet Resort'' *''Pirates of the Caribbean: Isles of War'' *''Poker Palace'' *''ScribbleMix'' *''Sorority Life'' *''Star Wars Commander'' *''Threads of Mystery'' *''Tiki Farm'' *''Tiki Resort'' *''Treetopia'' *''Verdonia'' *'' Wild Ones''

Sorority Life

Sorority Life was an online

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

published by Playdom on the

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

platforms

and Myspace in 2008. Each player assumed the role of a college

sorority Fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities in North America. Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student, but continues thereafter for life. Some accept gradua ...

sister striving to increase her social status by improving her employment and wardrobe, the giving of gifts, and other activities. By the summer of 2009,

Steve Meretzky Steven Eric Meretzky (born May 1, 1957)
''Infocom''. Retrieved July 11, 2011. is an American

, a contributor to the game"Two histories of Myst."
John Gabriel Adkins. ''Medium.'' and Vice-President of Game Design at Playdom at the time, wrote that ''Sorority Life'' had three million

monthly active users Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...

. By May 2010, ''Sorority Life'' had over 5 million monthly active users, and 600,000-700,000 daily users, on Facebook. On December 23, 2013, Sorority Life announced an "extended downtime" on its Facebook page, and on January 8, 2014, announced that the game would be permanently shut down.

References

External links

Official website
{{DisneyConsumer Disney Interactive Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Virtual economies Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Companies based in Palo Alto, California Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area American companies established in 2008 Video game companies established in 2008 Video game companies disestablished in 2016 2008 establishments in California 2016 disestablishments in California Disney acquisitions