Amazon, PopCap Strike Deal

Up-and-coming Seattle casual game company PopCap Games is partnering with one of the city’s tech titans, Amazon.com, to sell its first games for Google’s Android smartphone platform. The deal, announced today, gives Amazon’s Appstore for Android first crack at selling the games Chuzzle and Plants vs. Zombies, for two weeks each.
Amazon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMZN]]) has been making news around the Android platform for weeks, including the unveiling of its Appstore (and a lawsuit with Apple (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AAPL]]) over the name), and a cloud-based music service that looks like an Android answer to Apple’s iTunes.
Add to that the growing reports that Amazon may be moving toward making an Android-based tablet computer, stoked recently by CEO Jeff Bezos’ advice to “stay tuned” when Consumer Reports asked him about the possibility of an Amazon tablet. PopCap is making some moves of its own: It recently purchased San Francisco-based social gaming company ZipZapPlay, and is strongly considering an IPO this fall.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time. View all posts by Curt Woodward