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Tag: Rovio

  • Chinese Theme Park Creates A Real-Life Angry Birds Game

    As Charles Caleb Colton once said, “Imitation is the sincerest of flattery”.

    With that in mind Rovio should be thrilled, as a Chinese theme park has created a real-life, Angry Birds game. Sure, this isn’t the first of it’s kind, but it is defiantly the most loyal to the game, though that sounds sort of silly.

    Much like the popular game, players begin by pulling back a gigantic slingshot. One slight difference between the two games, the theme park version is loaded with a plush Angry Bird not a real one, which should please Peta. The pigs in the game are just mere balloons but without a doubt will still find someway to piss you off if you miss them.

    The theme park which houses the Angry Birds game can be found in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan, in south-central China. Below you’ll see several photos of what a real-life Angry Birds game would look like:









    [Images Chinanews.com via Micgadget and Colorfulworld]

  • Angry Birds IPO To Come in Next Few Years

    Angry Birds IPO To Come in Next Few Years

    The Finnish company that brought us the joy of hurling exploding black bomb-birds into crowned green pigs says they are eyeing an initial public offering within the next 3 to 4 years.

    Chief Marketing Officer Peter Vesterbacka said that although they may be listed in the next several years, the aren’t in any hurry.

    As quoted at Reuters, Vesterbacka made a point to say that the hypothetical IPO is “a more meaningful direction than, for instance, selling the company.”

    Vesterbacka said that Rovio wants to become the world’s top entertainment brand in 3 years.  He also said that he projects 2011 sales to thoroughly exceed those of 2010, possibly hitting at high as 100 million euros ($139 million).

    Although Rovio becoming the world’s leading entertainment brand in 3 years might be quite a stretch, there is much reason to celebrate for the company.  Just recently, they reported that Angry Birds has been downloaded over 140 million times.  In this report they thanked the iPhone for “creating the distribution”  and making it so “great games mattered.”

    And the popularity seems to be holding strong.  Earlier this year, the Angry Birds Rio chapter to the saga hit an impressive statistic.  It was downloaded 10 million times in 10 days upon release.

    @RovioMobile
    Angry Birds    10 in 10:-) Angry Birds Rio breaking all records. A massive thanks to all our fans!!! 37 days ago via Twitter for iPad · powered by @socialditto

    Recently, Rovio announced that it was planning on going after the Chinese mobile market.  They say they want 100 million downloads in China, which is definitely probable due to the large population, with many of that population using mobile devices.

    So, barring a robot uprising that destroys man, Rovio may go public in the next few years.  If the machines do become sentient, it will most likely be Rovio’s fault in part – check out this robot playing Angry Birds.

    Aw, it thinks it’s people.  KILL IT.  KILL IT NOW.

    Remember, I warned you.

  • Angry Birds Going After China

    While reveling in their recent success — 140 million downloads, ya’ll — Rovio announced their next move for the Angry Birds franchise. The target? The far east; China, to be exact. The goal for the company behind Angry Birds isn’t that much different than their U.S. strategy: Domination of the mobile device gaming market.

    Thanks to a report at AppleInsider, the Angry Birds plan for Chinese domination was revealed during the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing earlier this week. During the presentation, Rovio executive Peter Vesterbacka was quite boastful of Angry Birds, saying the brand has grown faster than any before it. Owing this confidence to the Angry Birds ever-growing downloads total, it’s easy to see why Rovio thinks their game will just as successful in China.

    It also helps that China has over 300 million mobile device users, giving the Angry Birds a lot of potential targets. Rovio’s goal for the Angry Birds takeover of China calls for 100 million downloads, and with so many members of the Chinese population using mobile technology, that goal isn’t so far-fetched.

    As for Angry Birds’ current success story, Vesterbacka thanks Apple and its ability to distribute content for the opportunity to prosper:

    “Apple created the distribution for us that we didn’t have before. All of a sudden, great games mattered,” said Vesterbacka. “We are seeing smartphone growth explode, and we are riding that wave.”

    He also credited the game’s popularity to the character designs, using Pixar’s track record with memorable characters as a template for Angry Birds. Oddly enough, however, while heaping credit on Apple’s environment, Vesterbacka was none to friendly to the Android market, calling it fragmented and a “very Google centric ecosystem.”

    Because, yeah, Apple’s mobile architecture has such the reputation of being open and accessible for all devices… Nevertheless, it’s pretty easy to see why Rovio is so indebted to Apple. Without the iPhone platform, Angry Birds would most likely have the designation of being just another game.

  • Angry Birds Developer Calls For Death Of Console Gaming

    Angry Birds Developer Calls For Death Of Console Gaming

    The television was supposed to kill radio. The internet is supposed to stab television in the back. Email is supposedly going to be dead in a few years due to social media. I wonder if Twitter will commit harikari in 2020. What is it with technology and death?

    Now, Peter Vesterbacka, business developer lead for Rovio (of Angry Birds fame), has come out to make the bold statement that mobile gaming is causing console gaming to die. He made the statement during the SXSW Conference. Do the numbers back up his statement? Is the 100 million downloads Vesterbacka claims Angry Birds drew in enough to send console gaming the way of the dinosaurs?

    Let’s take a look at the cold hard data. For our two samples we’ll look at the immensely popular Angry Birds, and Call of Duty: Black Ops to represent console gaming. Black Ops was the top selling console game of 2010.

    We’re going to take the 100 million downloads Rovio is boasting with their title and match it up against the console sales for Black Ops. According to VGChartz, Black Ops sold 11.95 millions copies on the Xbox 360, and 9.6 million copies on the PS3.

    According to my handy computer calculator, here’s how the numbers stand against one another (Black Ops sells for $59.99).

    Angry Birds revenue – $100 million

    Call of Duty: Black Ops revenue – $1.29 billion

    Of course the real tell-of-the-tape is with their profit, but unfortunately we don’t have production and publishing costs for both games. However, I would be extremely surprised to learn that Black Op’s production cost so much it earned less than $100 million.

    As a gamer for going on two decades, I would have to call Vesterbacka’s words at the very least, reaching, at the most, hyperbole. There’s a good chance Vesterbacka was simply posturing to the crowd, and wanted to create some controversy to attract attention to his game. If so, it worked, I am writing about what he said.

    Mobile gaming has definitely changed the landscape of not only gaming but the way we value media. However, the mobile gaming platform isn’t going to cause anything to “die“. It has simply provided us with another way in which to enjoy gaming, and to allow more people to join in on the action.

    Different forms of technology will be around as long as they’re useful; after all, I can still go out to my car and listen to the radio.

  • Angry Birds Rio: Exclusive For Android Devices & Amazon Appstore

    The next installment of Rovio’s uber-popular Angry Birds saga, Angry Birds Rio, will be an Android exclusive release, but you won’t be able to get it from the Android Market. If you’re left scratching your head about how you can get the game, don’t fret, as it will be available via Amazon’s Appstore for Android… exclusively.

    Do you think more apps will release exclusively with Amzaon? Tell us your thoughts.

    @amazonappstore
    Amazon Appstore    We’re all atwitter over #AngryBirdsRio for Android, launching exclusively in the @AmazonAppstore. http://amzn.to/gh0vMz 4 hours ago via Amazon Publisher · powered by @socialditto

    Aaron Rubenson, category leader for Amazon Appstore said…

    “Amazon is thrilled to work with a leading developer like Rovio in offering our customers Angry Birds Rio for Android exclusively in the Amazon Appstore… We think Angry Birds Rio is sure to be an instant customer favorite.”

    Angry Birds Rio, developed in conjunction with Twentieth Century Fox, sees the original cast of characters kidnapped and taken to the magical world of Rio, where they eventually escape their captors and begin the quest of saving their friends.

    “The Amazon Appstore will be a great new way for consumers to download all their favorite Android apps, and we’re excited to offer Angry Birds Rio as one of the first pieces of content to be made available to consumers through this new store”, said Peter Levinsohn, president of new media and digital distribution for Twentieth Century Fox .

    Angry Birds Rio will be available for download at http://amazon.com/angrybirds.