Playdom acquires Hive7.com as part of social game acquisition spree

A few days after announcing its latest financing, Playdom is making deals again. The social gaming company just announced that it has acquired Hive7.com for an undisclosed price.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hive7 makes social games. It was founded in 2005 and it focuses on making games for Facebook and other social networks. It is best known for Knighthood, a medieval-themed game of combat and diplomacy. Other titles include Youtopia, Kick-Off and Sindicate.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Playdom announced on Tuesday that it had raised $33 million in a third round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Steamboat Ventures, and New World Ventures. To date, Playdom has raised $76 million. The company is a social games leader on both MySpace and Facebook, and more than 130 million of its games have been installed.

Playdom has acquired five companies
in the past four months as it tries to solidify its position in the social gaming Gold Rush. Its goal is to catch up to rivals such as Zynga, Crowdstar and EA Playfish through acquisitions. Playdom’s rapid growth in users is generating a lot of cash. Playdom’s big games include Social City (above) and Mobsters. Users play the company’s games for free, but they pay to purchase virtual goods such as better weapons in the games.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.