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Playdom continues acquisition spree with Acclaim buyout

Free-to-play company becomes first LA developer for social games firm

Social gaming company Playdom continues its acquisition spree with the announcement that it has acquired free-to-play specialist Acclaim Games.

The Acclaim name was resurrected in 2006 by Howard Marks, who has built the company into a destination for free-to-play online titles and MMORPGs including RockFree, 9Dragons and Dance Online. It now boasts 15 million registered users.

"Joining forces with Playdom is a natural fit," said Marks, CEO of Acclaim. "Both companies share the vision of connecting people globally through quality social games. Our deep expertise in building multiplayer online games and Playdom’s vast player community will help us bring out the next generation of social games."

In recent months Playdom has acquired developers Three Melons, Offbeat Creations, Green Patch and Trippert Labs.

Acclaim will now become a studio within the Playdom portfolio, managed by Marks who will work alongside Playdom chief technical officer Neil Malhotra.

"Bringing Howard and Neil into Playdom strengthens our leadership and bolsters our position as an innovative games developer for the future," said John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom.

"Howard and Neil have worked together building and operating games for many years, and their pipeline of new games is strong. We are also excited about opening our first Los Angeles based social game development studio which gives us access to all of the game development talent in Southern California. We look forward to big things from this team."

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Matt Martin

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Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.