Tag Archives: Angry Birds

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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“We’re talking with Sony games now. We are really trying to take it in areas that haven’t been done before and have stayed out of the marketplace because the ideas simply weren’t exciting enough. So while the gaming world is waiting for the KISS games that are going to explode, we’re busy taking the brand to places where no band has gone before. We’re talking with Angry Birds, KISS and Angry Birds, which will become a deal. It’s just endless what we can do, but we only do things when it’s right. Just because there are games, and just because there’s this or that out there, unless the deal is right and unless the content is exciting to our fans, we don’t do it.” – Gene Simmons on extending the KISS brand to video games and Angry Birds. Thanks, IndustryGamers.

Angry Birds developer Rovio’s boss feels that piracy isn’t always bad for business and can actually help in building an entertainment brand.

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Rovio has announced Angry Birds is heading to Facebook in time for Valentine’s Day, and to celebrate, the firm will be hosting a launch event in Jakarta, Indonesia. The game will contain full-screen capabilities, leaderboards, higher quality animations, new power-ups you can earn or purchase for $0.99 such as earthquakes and bigger, better birds. The firm told Penn Olson that 40% of users were more interested in buying the power-ups, compared to 3 to 4% in other games. Thanks, Gamasutra.

Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka has confirmed the company has no plans to have a public offering this year on either the New York or Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

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Rovio has announced that 6.5 million people downloaded Angry Birds to their smartphones on Christmas Day, double the number of phone activations estimated to have occurred over the holidays. “We’re really excited to have such a massive number of new people get acquainted with Angry Birds over the holidays — we have exciting new releases lined up for 2012, and can’t wait to introduce them to the public,” Rovio’s Ville Heijari told AllThingsD. The figure represents all three versions of the game: Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio, in both paid and free downloads. The number of downloads for the game is up over Christmas 2010, when 2 million people acquired the game on both iOS and Android devices. Thanks, Joystiq.

“I like to compare it to a sport, in the beginning it’s an activity, like golf was an activity, then it became a sport. I think once people have played it more than 20 or 25 years you can say it’s here to stay, it’s a sport, it’s no longer a fad. Angry Birds is cute and everybody plays it for a while but they get burned out and move on and they will play another game. But Tetris is like Happy Birthday, it keeps on going. Everybody else has games that come and go, they make the hit parade, but these are all temporary. You have to work really hard to get your unknown game to be #1, but when we re-released Tetris it became #1 even though we didn’t do any marketing. We have an unfair advantage, I gotta say. I’d rather have the goose that lays the golden egg.” – Tetris Company’s manager Henk Rogers to IndustryGamers.

Rovio’s very popular Angry Birds will turn two years old on December 11, and the firm is celebrating with a Happy Birthday update which unlocks all episodes and adds an extra 15 levels.

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Australian band, Hey Geronimo, has recreated several popular iOS games for its latest music video. Taking in the likes of Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope, Flight Control and, of course, those ubiquitous Angry Birds, it’s cute, it’s goofy, and it’s through the break.

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MCV‘s reporting this morning that Angry Birds will make its enviable jump to retail from November 25 on PC for £10.20 in the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Focus Multimedia will be handling pub duties. After the release of the original this month, Angry Birds Seasons will release before Christmas, with Angry Birds Rio coming next year.

More details at the link.

Rovio has announced that Angry Birds has been downloaded 500 million times since its release on December 11, 2009. “It’s more than any game ever before,” said the firm’s marketing boss Peter Vesterbacka, who added that the firm’s next goal is to reach 1 billion downloads. Earlier this year, Rovio raised $42 million from venture capital firms, and has expanded the franchise into toys as well as baby and pet products. Via Reuters.

Rovio US GM Andrew Stalbow has said at Web 2.0 that Angry Birds has been downloaded 400 million times, with more stats also provided at his Web 2.0 talk in San Francisco. The gane, across its multiple releases over multiple platforms, sees 30 million daily active users with 300 million minutes played every day, which translates into 109.5 billion minutes per year or 1.825 billion hours.

There’s more details on Mashable.

Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka has hinted the company may go for an IPO within the next year, but says it current valuation of $1.2 billion is lower than it sees it should be.

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Time again for another round of the small stuff.

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A handy infographic helps explain why you just can’t stop flinging enraged avians at increasingly pitiful pigs.

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A sombre shorts today.

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Rovio Entertainment is in talks for new funding which would put the firm’s value at $1.2 billion, according to a Bloomberg reports. Citing “two people with knowledge of the discussions,” Bloomberg states Rovio is considering an investment from an as of yet unnamed entertainment firm. The funding would help the firm with its Angry Birds movie, currently at the idea stage, and extra fund to open offices outside of its home-base of Finland. In March, Rovio raised $42 million from an investment fund controlled by Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom. Thanks, Forbes.

VentureBeat‘s reporting that Rovio has partnered with Madhouse to help bring Angry Birds to China. The ad network will help push the mobile marketing campaign for the game in the country. Since its 2009 launch, Angry Birds has seen 12 million units sold from the App Store.

A report by market intelligence firm Parks Associates has said a huge rise in mobile gaming has taken place since 2007.

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

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