Social gaming company Playdom is definitely on an acquisition spree. Last month it bought Hive 7, this month it is Metaplace, a startup that launched at TechCrunch 40 in 2007.

Metaplace has developed an in-browser virtual-world engine which can be applied to social games. Founders Raph Koster and John Donham previously worked at Sony Online Entertainment, where they helped develop games like Star Wars Galaxies and Everquest II. At Metaplace, they’ve already launched two Facebook games: Island Life (with 457,000 monthly active users) and My Vineyard (with 822,000 monthly active users). A third game is on the way. Playdom will use the virtual world game engine Metaplace has developed to create even more games in that genre and add the game design studio to its growing roster.

The company has raised $9.4 million from Charles River Ventures, Crescendo Ventures, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The acquisition price is not being disclosed.

Playdom just raised $33 million of its own last month from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures and Bessemer. Some of its other recent acquisitions include MMORPG developer Acclaim Games, Facebook game developer Offbeat Creations, Three Melons, and Merscom.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Playdom is continuing its shopping spree of game developers. The gaming giant is acquiring social game publisher Acclaim Games today. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Acclaim has built a name for itself in the casual and MMORPG gaming space. The company also has launched RockFree, a Facebook guitar game, in March 2010, which now has tens of thousands of daily active users. Acclaim is currently developing another Facebook game due to launch this summer.

Acclaim will become the newest team to join Playdom’s growing number of gaming studios and talent. Acclaim CEO Howard Marks, a former Activision 2.0 co-founder and Chairman of the Activision Studios, will run the Acclaim studio for Playdom and serve in a senior strategic role for the parent company focused on Playdom’s business development activities. Acclaim’s Chief Technology Officer, Neil Malhotra will now act as the studio’s senior technical officer.

Playdom has been on quite a shopping spree over the past few months. The company, which recently brought on a new CTO, has steadily been expanding its presence on Facebook, most recently acquiring Facebook game developer Offbeat Creations and developer Three Melons. Playdom also invested $5 million in Facebook game developer MetroGames. And Playdom just bough popular branded game developer Merscom.

In November, Playdom raised a massive $43 million at a $260 million valuation, which it is obviously using towards buying companies and talent. According to our stats from November, Playdom has 28 million monthly game users. 60% of traffic is from MySpace v. 40% from Facebook. Playdom’s main competitor is gaming giant Zynga, which is a leading game developer on Facebook.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch