Seattle-based publisher Big Fish has acquired mobile social outfit Self Aware Games for an undisclosed fee, the company has revealed.

Self Aware, which is behind the Card Ace: Casino brand, currently employs a total of 25 people, with both the studio itself and parent company Social Concepts set to be incorporated into Big Fish's operations.

Staying put

The purchase of the studio has been pitched by Big Fish as an attempt to hand the outfit a "leading presence in the explosively growing market of free-to-play, virtual items games", with Self Aware to remain at its base in Oakland, California following the culmination of the deal.

"We are delighted to integrate one of the most talented mobile-social game development teams into Big Fish, and to extend our mainstream consumer reach to include the booming market of casino games," said Big Fish Games founder and CSO Paul Thelen.

"We look forward to delighting the enormous audience on Facebook with the Card Ace: Casino experience."

Record breaker

The acquisition comes as Big Fish Games announced year-over-year organic revenue growth of 30 percent in 2011, marking nine consecutive years of record revenue for the firm.

"We delivered another year of excellent results in 2011, including healthy market share gains, revenue growth, and profit," added CEO Jeremy Lewis.

"We grew particularly fast in mobile, where trust in our brand and our games extended very rapidly and naturally to mainstream consumers on iPhone and iPad."

Big Fish boasts a total of 100 unique games on the App Store, with more than 150 indie developers having partnered with the publisher to date.

[source: BusinessWire]