Promises to preserve its independence and relationships with indie developers.
The rumours were right: Electronic Arts has bought iPhone games publisher Chillingo, with a spokesperson confirming the acquisition for "an undisclosed price".
They also said that EA "remains committed to preserving Chillingo's independence and letting them continue to manage and cultivate their great network of relationships with independent developers".
EA may not be talking price, but Reuters claims EA will pay 'under $20 million in cash plus other undisclosed considerations' for the UK-based publisher.
"By acquiring Chillingo, EA Mobile is increasing its market leadership on the Apple platform as well as reaffirming its position as the world's leading wireless entertainment publisher," says the statement.
It appears that Chillingo will be EA's conduit to the indie iOS development community, hunting down the next Angry Birds for the publisher, while EA Mobile focuses on bringing its big console brands to Apple's platform.
However, despite nearly all the reports going with the 'EA buys Angry Birds publisher' line, it seems that the multi-million selling feathery physics game is not part of the deal.
"We did not sell to EA, Chillingo did," tweeted the game's developer Rovio Mobile tonight. "We own Angry Birds and all the rights."
Indeed, Rovio has spent the last couple of hours using its Twitter account to correct journalists who say EA bought Angry Birds' developer, and making it clear that Chillingo merely owns the rights to the game for iPhone and iPad.
So what is EA getting for its $20 million plus extras? While Chillingo has its Crystal social gaming platform, that's unlikely to be the main selling point - not since the launch of Apple's Game Center anyway.
What it does have is a large base of players who can be marketed to, and an enviable record in talent-spotting independently developed iOS games - its latest hit is Cut the Rope, which notched up a million sales in less than ten days on the App Store.
In that sense, Chillingo is a good fit for EA, although the reported $20 million figure has raised eyebrows in the industry, given that ngmoco sold for $403 million last week.
Of course, another appealing reason to buy Chillingo is that it assimilates one of EA's key rivals on the App Store.
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