Category Archives: Finland

Yet more evidence of the phenomenal popularity of Angry Birds, now officially capable of burying some of the biggest brands in the world.

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EA Maxis, the studio behind The Sims, Sim City and Spore, has opened a new office in Helsinki, Finland.

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Rovio CEO Mikael Hed has said the firm is considering moving its headquarters from Finland to Dublin in order to take advantage of Ireland’s 12.5% tax rate. Speaking with the Irish Times, Hed said the tax rate is a plus in the country’s favor, as Finland’s current rate is 24%. Currently, the firm employs a staff of 400 in Finland, and Hed said an Irish studio could also end up manufacturing Angry Birds, and other titles the firm is working on. and other new games they have created. “We are considering [Ireland,] said Hed. “It is something that we need to look at. For now we have stayed in Finland. But it is on top of our minds.”

Finnish developer Housemarque has confirmed it’s working on several new projects, as well as posting images of teams working away on said new titles on its blog.

The studio released Super Stardust Delta for PS Vita and Furmins for iOS earlier this year.

Angry Birds creator Rovio has announced its bought fellow Finnish company Futuremark Games Studio.

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Finnish dev 10tons has announced the release of puzzler Azkend 2, a lovely game that takes you on a Jules Verne-ish, match-three waltz through eight worlds of 19th Century mystery. It’s out for iOS, iOS HD, PC and Mac. If you’re not addicted and dreamy-eyed on ten minutes we’ll retreat beneath the waves for good, sah. There’s a free trial of the PC and Mac versions which gives access to the full game for 60 minutes. Watch a trailer below.

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The second part of our tour of the Finnish games industry, in which Patrick Garratt sees Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, travels from Helsinki to Tampere and tries to navigate a blizzard using a game on an ancient Nokia phone.

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VG247 tours Finland’s games companies to find discs dead, investment capital flowing like champagne and mobile development everywhere. Patrick Garratt reports.

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According to a Microsoft fact sheet, ten more countries will be getting the Xbox Live Video Marketplace this fall.

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Microsoft’s confirmed to VG247 that Inside Xbox went live in eight extra European countries yesterday.

The online 360 magazine is now available in Denmark, Finland, Holland, Norway and Sweden, and in multiple languages in Austria, Belgium and Switzerland.

Up to yesterday, the service was viewable in America, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Taiwan.

To take a look, just boot up your 360 and navigate to the Inside Xbox channel.

Catastrophe this morning for the Nordic region, as news hits that the Animal Crossing-Wii Speak bundle won’t be available in Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

Apparently our Northern cousins will be able to buy the game and microphone peripheral separately, but not in the same pack.

Expect viking fury about this over the course of the day. Or not.

From Tendografen, via N-Europe.

The site of Finnish mag Pelaaja is about to publish a 50-minute podcast which includes an in-depth chat with Remedy lead writer Sami Järvi on the current state of Alan Wake, why it’s taking so long and a proper confirmation that a new trailer is to be shown in Finland on October 15.

From the podcast:

• The reason it’s taking so long is simply that it’s a small team and building an open world game is very tough. They just want to take their time with it, but it’s definitely making progress.
• The reason for a new trailer is simple. The team mostly came up with it on a whim due to the release Max Payne movie. Also, the company just wanted to show something new on the game.
• Remedy’s using some of its old Rockstar contacts for the title’s development. Navid Khonsari who handled most of the mocap and VO directing in Rockstar’s games prior to GTA4 is apparently working on voice directing.
• Remedy owns the Alan Wake IP, so the firm’s able to take its time with it, though Järvi admits in the interview it’s taking a long time to make. Remedy insists that it’s not that it won’t ever be happy with the game, but the team just wants to make it as good as it can be.

We’re assuming the interview’s in Finnish, but you will be wanted to keep that URL in mind…

A Finnish source has told VG247 this morning that a Pelaaja story claiming a new Alan Wake trailer is to be shown at the Finnish premiere of the Max Payne movie is “100 percent true”.

We’ve also been told that Pelaaja is to publish more on the game this Friday.

The Max Payne movie is to be shown in Finland for the first time on October 15.

As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know.