Thu, Jul 21, 2011 | 03:03 BST

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Rovio betting the bank on Angry Birds

Angry Birds creator Rovio has said it plans to be the biggest entertainment brand in the world in two years.

“We are betting everything on Angry Birds,” Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka told VentureBeat.

“We want to be the first entertainment brand with a billion fans. That will take us two or three years to do.”

Rovio’s more modest goal for the next 12 months is to become the “leading entertainment brand in China”. See? Much more manageable. That’s only a sixth of the world’s population right there.

“It’s not all about monetization now. It’s about keeping the fans coming back and building the brand,” Vesterbacka said.

Rovio wants to make Angry Birds into a lasting cross-media brand like Mario or Mickey Mouse instead of moving on to new games, because it may never produce another smash hit like this one.

“Game makers buy into their own bullshit. You think you can make hit after hit. We know how hard it is to do that, so we are betting everything on Angry Birds,” Vesterbacka said.

Rovio made 51 low-impact games before Angry Birds, which is among the most successful mobile game of all time. Rovio has released a line of toys, and is planning a TV show among other merchandising initiatives.

Thanks, IndustryGamers.

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