EA's purchase of UK iOS publisher Chillingo has been put into context as the publisher's mobile business has filed a quarterly loss for the first time.

Obviously its traditional Brew/Java business has dipped harder than the emerging smartphone business can overcome.

That's why EA Mobile, the #1 publisher on the App Store, decided to buy Chillingo, which is the most volumious publisher on iOS.

Size of a bull

The price of the deal hadn't been confirmed to-date however, at least until the usual EA analysts' question and answer session.

This confirmed the 'circa $20 million upfront deal' saying that EA had paid $17 million for Chillingo.

The interesting part however is that an additional $12 million is potentially due if Chillingo meets its targets over the next three years, valuing the entire deal at $29 million - something that's much more healthy for Chillingo shareholders.

[source: EA]