Rovio kicks off Gamescom with a new studio in Stockholm and an ex-Battlefield GM
Rovio's bird-based empire continues to expand, with this morning's Twitter feed outing ex-Battlefield Play4Free head Oskar Burman as the new general manager of Rovio's Stockholm-based studio. "Super excited to let you know I'm the new GM of Rovio Stockholm, opening up shop today," Burman announced. He left EA's "Easy Company" studio just last month, having served as the GM at Easy ahead of that.
Burman's certainly excited about the move, saying, "IMHO Rovio is one of the most exciting devs in the world, perfectly positioned for the future, [with] focus on digital, mobile, and thinking big." He added, "Have to admit I was also growing tired of creating violent games. From now on I'll only inflict violence on cartoon pigs."
Rovio says it's "delighted to welcome Oskar to the flock," and that he'll be working on "bringing Sweden's best talent together to work for the world's fastest growing and most innovative entertainment company." The Stockholm studio is "focused on supporting Rovio in both current and upcoming game projects," but no other info is given about what specifically the studio is working on.
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Rovio appoints Oskar Burman General Manager of new Stockholm office
Angry Birds creator hires former EA GM to head new Scandinavian games studio
August 14, 2012 -- Helsinki, Finland -- Rovio Entertainment announced the hiring of Oskar
Burman to head up their new games studio in Stockholm. As an industry veteran with more than
15 years of experience, the former head of EA's Easy Studios will be focused on getting Rovio's
newest office up and running later this year.
"Rovio impressed me right from the start with their ability to think and execute in a big way," said
Burman. "When other game publishers are satisfied with building a great game, Rovio builds a
360 degree entertainment experience, where the great game is just the start. I'm super excited
to set up Rovio's first development studio outside Finland, and over the years to come, create
awesome entertainment delighting people from every corner of the world!"
Burman has been working in the video games business since the early nineties, when he cofounded one of the first game developers in Sweden, UDS. From there he moved on to a Studio
Manager position at Avalanche Studios, and most recently landed as General Manager at Easy,
an EA owned online studio focusing on F2P shooters. In addition, he's a board member at
Dataspelsbranschen, the trade organization for the Swedish games industry. In his career so
far, he's been in key roles on several high profile titles, including Just Cause 2 and Battlefield
Heroes.
"Oskar's experience, vision, and track record speaks for itself," said Petri Järvilehto, EVP of
Games at Rovio. "We're delighted to welcome Oskar to the flock and look forwarding to building
a highly creative games development team in Stockholm under his leadership."
At Rovio's Stockholm office, Burman will be focused on bringing Sweden's best talent together
to work for the world's fastest growing and most innovative entertainment company. Similar to
Rovio's Tampere studio, the new games studio will be focused on supporting Rovio in both
current and upcoming game projects.
Positions at the Stockholm office are already open, and talented game developers,
programmers, artists, and producers are strongly encouraged to apply at
www.rovio.com/careers.
