Playdom Invests $5M In MetroGames

By Chris Sherman On March 16, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Today the social game developer Playdom invested a $5 million Series A round of funding in the Argentinian social games start-up MetroGames. As part of the round, Playdom COO John Pleasants will be joining the MetroGames board. The company will use the funding to help develop both new games and its technology platform. MetroGames has developed about 30 games to date, which are available both on Facebook and its own Website.

This is Playdom's second investment in a Facebook developer this month, following its acquisition of Offbeat Creations a few weeks ago. While Playdom is regularly considered the second-largest of the US-based social game developers, about 60% of its users play games from the MySpace platform. The larger Facebook platform continues to be dominated primarily by larger rival Zynga. The two companies are currently embroiled in a lawsuit regarding similarities between their Mafia Wars and Mobsters mafia RPGs.

Since receiving its $43 million round of funding last November, Playdom's had a clear focus on acquiring smaller Facebook-centric developers. It is possible that Playdom is interested in trying to invest or acquire its way to closing the substantial gap that separates its performance from Zynga's on the Facebook platform.