The sports brand has inked a two-year deal with social gaming company Playdom to build the games, the first two of which should launch in Fall 2010. Other platforms for the games will include Bebo, Hi5, MySpace and Tagged.
In addition to launching on social networks, mobile apps will also be available.
Raphael Poplock is ESPN Digital Media's VP for games and revenue strategy and development. He said today in a statement, “Our deal with Playdom marks ESPN’s first major presence into the social gaming space. The sports genre for this category of games has gone virtually untapped thus far, and through this agreement, we have an opportunity to be in front of a highly engaged audience and at the forefront of what is currently the fastest growing games category out there.”
ESPN Interactive has a long-time relationship with EA for developing and marketing console games. ESPN Arcade is the brand's casual gaming arm, and it's been growing and helping to increase users' time on ESPN.com. Social gaming was the missing puzzle piece for ESPN, and we can't wait to see what Playdom comes up with.
What kinds of sports genre games would you want to play on Facebook or other networks?
[img credit: prettywarstl]