One of the people responsible for some of the biggest releases in casual gaming has left the studio he helped form.
Publisher Electronic Arts confirmed that PopCap co-founder John Vechey has left the company after 15 years. Vechey says he is taking a “step back” to spend more time with his family. The casual-gaming luminary believes that getting some space away from PopCap will give him a better appreciation of his accomplishments. As for his immediate future, Vechey plans to focus on nonprofit work. PopCap will continue operation under many of its original leaders, and EA reaffirmed its commitment to the studio and its brands, like Plants vs. Zombies.
“When I founded PopCap, my biggest goals were to have a good time and to make great games,” wrote Vechey in a blog on EA’s website. “PopCap’s vision has always been to make people happy through games, and I believe we are achieving that every day. Today, I am proud of this company we have built together.”
While Vechey is exiting PopCap, he did reveal that the studio has heavily invested in prototyping new ideas. He says these projects will enable the company to introduce new ideas and brands for “years to come.”
“The future is bright for PopCap,” wrote Vechey. “We have some amazing games live, with millions of people enjoying them every day. We have some great games in production, which will surprise and delight players.”
The executive also says he looks forward to what PopCap owner EA has in store for the future.
Vechey founded PopCap in 2000 with partners Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka. In 2001, the company introduced the puzzler Bejeweled, which has players trying to match diamonds, sapphires, and other precious metals to get as high a score as possible. Bejeweled went on to surpass 50 million in sales across a variety of platforms including PC, consoles, and mobile.
Building on that success, the company released a number of other casual, arcade-style hits like the pachinko-like Peggle and the popular Plants vs. Zombies, where you build a garden of sentient plants to fight off waves of the undead.
In July 2011, Electronic Arts acquired PopCap for $750 million in cash and stock options. Since then, PopCap has released Peggle 2, Plants vs. Zombies 2, and the new-gen shooter Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.
Vechey is hardly the first studio founder to leave a company after an EA acquisition. Earlier this year, the founders of mobile developer Chillingo and Burnout studio Criterion’s founders all left EA. In 2012, Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk left EA’s Mass Effect developer BioWare.
