Social Dev Playdom Raises $43 Million

Social game developer Playdom, which focuses on MySpace- and Facebook-hosted games including Mobsters and Sorority Life, has raised $43 million in a venture capital funding round. According to a TechCrunch report, the studio's Series A financing pulled in investors including New Enterprise Associates, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners. Playdom co-founder and chairman Rick Thompson also further invested into the company. Playdom, which has 28 million unique monthly users and recently opened a San Francisco studio to supplement its Mountain View headquarters, is best known for its Mobsters series of social games, which is available on MySpace, Facebook, and iPhone. According to TechCrunch, Playdom says more than 70 percent of its revenue comes from direct payments, 10 percent from advertising, and 20 percent from advertiser deals offered to users, the subject of recent controversy in the social game space. Unlike many social game studios, Playdom derives most of its web user base from MySpace rather than Facebook. Mobsters is MySpace's top game, with 14 million users as of October -- while the game doesn't rank in Facebook's top 25.