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Angry Birds stores slamming into China, game breaks 500M downloads

Rovio marketing man Peter "We're totally worth more than $1.2 billion" Vesterbacka announced plans to open a retail store in China. MCV reports the company is making the move due to the vast amount of unlicensed Angry Birds products being sold in the country. Rovio plans to copy items it sees in the market and officially sell them in its retail locations. It's estimated the company could generate $100 million in sales from Angry Birds in China this year.

Meanwhile, the Angry Birds phenomenon rolls along, with the Guardian reporting the game has been downloaded 500 million times. "This is a fantastic landmark achievement for us, and we're extremely delighted to see such an incredible amount of people enjoying our games," said Mikael Hed, chief executive at Rovio, debatably using the plural there, given the success of its back catalog.

Rovio, beyond product tie-ins, is currently working on an Angry Birds movie and hoping to really fling foul amounts of cash into corporate coffers when it goes public next year.