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PopCap started by creating walled gardens and insulating the company from change, but it became necessary to diffuse skills into the company. In both transitions new skills had to be learned. Only a few people moved over to this studio as most were uncomfortable with making the change.

John David, a manager from ZipZapGames started what was known as the social studio.

He did this by creating a leading a “Console” team.

One of the founders of SpoutGames, Ed Allard, started a group focusing on creating console games for PopCap.

For instance, when the social games team was dissolved, PopCap moved the company as a whole to a social games business model. PopCap was fortunate that the VPs that placed in the lead roles for teams were willing to step down and share ideas with the rest of the company. As the business models used for games changed, they started to rip down the walls they constructed. They built walls - walled gardens - around these groups to insulate those in the company who were comfortable with change, from those who were not. Using the talent from their two acquisitions PopCap created focused teams for console development and social games development. Vechey identified a few key things tied to the corporate culture of PopCap that made these acquisitions successful. They brought PopCap talent that allowed them to expand their services into new markets. These acquisitions were not simply IP grabs. Second, they purchased ZipZapGames, a social games developer out of San Francisco. PopCap made two strategic acquisitions to aid them in their business:įirst, they acquired Sprout Games, which would aid them in the console market. Doing this made certain that they would find the talent that was required to make the transition successfully. They moved from having 1 of their 20 employees focusing on the business aspects of the company (HR, Marketing, Finance, Law), to having about 40% of the company working in this role. In order to compete as a developer/publisher PopCap began expanding business operations.

Online popcap games how to#

PopCap had to figure out how to navigate this space. In addition, this was a time when games and business models were changing.

They realized that they were just a small developer and didn't have the business structure in place to continue to publish games on their own without changing their business model.

The 2005 offer forced PopCap to reconsider how they were going to make it on their own. For anyone interested in starting their own company and growing it.

Online popcap games series#

Vechey offered a series of key points that he thought were important to the success of the company post 2005. The story starts immediately after turning down the offer, and it focuses on how they took PopCap, a studio with 20 employees, to a studio with 400 working in collaboration with Electronic Arts. Vechey's presentation focused on growing PopCap after 2005, a point in time where they were offered around 70 million to sell the company. That said, I think it is always interesting to hear from someone who has been very successful.

For those of you who are familiar with the business world, the notes from this keynote may seem rather obvious. Vechey's backstory is really cool, and if you like success stories you can read it here. The GDC Online Keynote speech was presented by John Vechey, a hyper-successful college dropout who founded PopCap games with his three friends.