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Angry Birds Go! is MarioKart with birds, arrives for free on iOS and Android December 11th
Angry Birds Go! (their emphasis, not ours) is the next big entry in the Angry Birds franchise, first teased back in June by the Finnish bird-flinging game company. The game takes the "universe" of Angry Birds and applies it to downhill cart racing; it'll even accept new karts in the form of telepods, the Skylanders-esque system first introduced in Angry Birds Star Wars 2. As the teaser shows, players employ power-ups to take their birds, pigs, and other Angry Birds characters past opponents on a variety of downhill courses. Beyond it being an entirely new genre for the Birds, the game looks dramatically prettier than other Angry Birds series entries. We'll get to see just how those fancy new graphics play out when the game arrives worldwide on December 11th for both iOS and Android devices (and we expect BB10 and WP8 too). Head below the break for the debut gameplay trailer.
Bad Piggies gets a ... cookbook
As if our recent exploration of the Angry Birds universe didn't convey the franchise's might, here's another sign. A Bad Piggies cookbook is available. Actually, the hardcover, real-life version of Angry Birds: Bad Piggies' Egg Recipes was out for the holiday season last year, long before the Bad Piggies game was ever announced. But now that the game itself is out, Rovio has decided to take the book digital, and so you can now buy the cookbook on the iPad as an interactive app. For a limited time, the book is debuting at a price of just 99 cents, so grab it quick if you like. Rovio has reached out its Angry Birds claws into yet another merchandising realm -- where to next?
Rovio and CERN teaming up on education: hopefully the Angry Birds help us this time [update]
The last time CERN and an angry bird met, it didn't end so well: the Large Hadron Collider overheated after a feathered creature reportedly dropped its breakfast on outdoor machinery. Things should go much more smoothly this time around, with CERN and Rovio partnering on an educational initiative that will be unveiled in full at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 12th. Although the two are shy on just what's entailed beyond the presence of some Angry Birds material at the event, the union will mark the start of Rovio's learning brand and likely represent more in the long run than another Angry Birds Space tie-in. We're mostly wondering if subatomic physics research will explain why we still can't three-star some levels in a physics-based game. Update: Rovio and CERN announced "Angry Birds Playground" this morning, which the company describes as, "a learning program for 3- to 8-year-olds based on the Finnish National Curriculum for kindergarten." In so many words, CERN and Rovio are partnering on an educational initiative aimed at young children which employs the iconic Angry Birds characters. It's unclear whether the initiative will spawn games or books or ... what exactly, but there you have it.
Feel the Force: Angry Birds Star Wars coming November 8th to iOS, Android, WP, Kindle Fire and computers
Rovio teased a certain film-inspired Angry Birds picture a long, long last week, and as expected, it's another new game -- Angry Birds Star Wars. Our furious feathered friends are assuming the likenesses of characters from the epic saga, with the trusty Red Bird taking on Luke Skywalker's role. It wouldn't be the Rebel Alliance without a dark side to fight, which is where the Pigs fit into the storyline; even the music and levels for gravity-based play will hark back to the film franchise. In addition to the software, details of related merchandise have also been uncovered, including table games, toys and costumes. The game is out on November 8th for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Kindle Fire and computers, and if it follows the original storyline, we wonder how Red Bird's going to feel about his porcine family history.
Rovio hints at Angry Birds tie-in with Star Wars on October 8th, Red Bird Five standing by
The green pigs have had their moment in the sun: it's time for the Angry Birds to come back. Rovio Mobile has posted a teaser of a collaboration between its frustrated avians and Star Wars that will get a grand reveal on October 8th at Toys R Us' Times Square location in New York City. No clear giveaways exist as to what's coming, although Rovio is promising animations, comics and other material in the weeks ahead -- we imagine it means more than a toy line, as unique as that can be. But does it mean an Angry Birds Space add-on that goes well beyond the Martian landscape, an entirely new game or something else altogether? We've asked the company for more details and will let you know if we're given more information. In the meantime, get ready for what's likely to be a geek culture explosion. [Thanks, Jaakko]
Here's a look at the whole universe of Angry Birds games (so far)
Bad Piggies is the latest title added to Rovio's growing universe of Angry Birds games, and the latest word is that it's the fastest-selling game in the company's history, hitting number one on the App Store just a few hours after it launched. Given all of the various Angry Birds properties that have hit the App Store (and elsewhere), you might not have heard about everything Angry Birds out there. But worry not -- we've put together a quick guide here to the entire universe of Angry Birds. Here's a list of every single Angry Birds game Rovio has released so far, from the first title released back in December of 2009, all the way up until Bad Piggies' release about a week ago. Keep in mind that we're just talking about the games here -- this list doesn't include the countless bits and bobs of Angry Birds merchandise out there, and other partnerships like the upcoming Angry Birds TV show and maybe even a movie. Angry Birds (December 11, 2009): This is Rovio's original hit and its first iOS title (published by Chillingo, which is now part of EA) after a string of uninteresting J2ME releases and games for Nokia's N-Gage phone console. Since its original iOS release, the first version of Angry Birds has also shown up on a number of other mobile operating systems, including Android (as a freemium title), Windows Phone, Blackberry Tablet OS and Symbian. The original game has also seen about nine different free updates, as well as a number of promotional add-ons and content as well. Angry Birds HD (April 2, 2010): The iPad version of the game arrived about six months after the iPhone version, just as the first iPad appeared. The game wasn't fundamentally different, but the larger screen made for a larger audience, and the higher price point ($4.99) definitely made Rovio more money. The standard and HD games also got free versions at some point as well, with eight mini-episodes released for free. Angry Birds Seasons (October 21, 2010): Rovio introduced this first official spinoff just under a year after the original launch, featuring tons of new levels, and a regular holiday-based structure for updates (an HD version was released right around the same time). The game originally started out as Angry Birds Halloween, but as more holidays came around, it was updated to its current "Seasons" status. There have been 13 different updates to the game so far, with the latest being a "Back to School" update back in August of 2012. Angry Birds Magic (October 2010): This game, also called "Angry Birds in Florida" in some places, was made specifically for Nokia's NFC (near field communication) smartphones, and had a feature where when two smartphones with the game installed on them came near each other, different levels would be unlocked. The title was announced to great fanfare at a Nokia conference in mid-2010, and presumably it released on the smartphones later that year, though since we're all iPhone owners here, we have no idea how it turned out. Angry Birds Rio (March 22, 2011): This version of the game was created in conjunction with the animated movie Rio and featured a Rovio-built storyline that had the movie's birds crossing paths with the Angry ones. It premiered on the movie's release date with two sets of levels, and a series of updates provided more and more levels to go along with the film's storyline. This is arguably the least popular version of Angry Birds, although there's no doubt that both the game and the movie benefited from the shared marketing. And given that there's an Angry Birds TV show on the way, Hollywood paid close attention to this release. Angry Birds Chrome (May 11, 2011): Rovio designed a special browser-based version of the game for Google's Chrome browser, completely free to play and supported by in-app purchases. The game featured "Chrome bombs" which were special items that players had to find and hit with the frustrated fowl, in order to unlock "Chrome dimension" levels. Angry Birds Space (March 22, 2012): This game was billed as a full Angry Birds sequel, with all new levels and new gravity-based gameplay, as the birds were tossed off of actual planets and out into the upper reaches of space. But since the app's release, Rovio has spun it more as just another part of the current universe, with new twists on the game's tried-and-true method of throwing birds into pigs. Space spawned both HD and free versions on the App Store as well, and has been ported off to Android, Windows and Mac. Angry Birds Friends (May 23, 2012): Angry Birds Friends is the Facebook version of the game, which has been running online for a while now. The game features weekly tournaments and lots of competition between Facebookers and their friends. (There are also a number of other browser-based versions of the game that have been live at different times over the years, including promotions with Samsung, Formula 1 racing driver Heikki Kovalainen, Wonderful Pistachios, Pepsi, Fuji TV and a Finnish candy company. These games have all featured new levels and themed content, but have been live only during certain promotional times.) Angry Birds Trilogy (September 25, 2012): Rovio teamed up just a little while ago with console publisher Activision to bring the content from Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, and Angry Birds Rio to consoles as a downloadable title, including the Nintendo 3DS, the Xbox 360 (with Kinect integration) and the PlayStation 3. Sales only just started, so we'll have to wait and see how Rovio's birds do in the larger traditional gaming market after they have dominated so much in the mobile markets. Bad Piggies (September 27, 2012): Which brings us back to Bad Piggies, Rovio's current hit, and the first game in the series that is build around the Pigs, specifically the task of building them vehicles to try and find a map to the birds' eggs. There will likely be a whole slew of updates for this title as well, and then ... who knows? Rovio has certainly grown its Angry Birds franchise by capitalizing on the initial game, so as big as this universe is already, there's no doubt that the company still has lots of other ideas on how to make it even bigger.
Visualized: Inside Rovio's HQ (video)
When in Helsinki, or rather Espoo, there's only one thing left to do after stopping by Nokia's glass House -- visit Rovio's HQ. That's right, the company made famous (and filthy rich) by flinging fowl is just a short walk away from Elop and co.'s waterside domain. And, in a bit of perfect timing, we were graciously welcomed into the gaming outfit's office on the eve of its Bad Piggies launch. As you might expect and hope, the walls, doors, floors, couches, desks, soft drinks and even bottles of hand lotion are adorned in all things Angry Birds. There's even a mock-up experience store -- populated with a variety of branded paraphernalia -- sitting pretty in pale green just outside a bank of cubicles. It's everything we ever imagined it to be. But don't just take our words for it. You can check it out for yourself in a video after the break. And now, we're really Finnish(ed).
Rovio's Amazing Alex arrives on Android and iOS July 12th, bosses everywhere weep for lost productivity (video)
It's finally happening: after roughly two and a half years, Rovio Mobile is weaning itself off of its addiction to avians. The company's first non-bird title in what feels like an eternity, Amazing Alex, will be reaching the official stores for both Android and iOS come July 12th. Strictly speaking, Rovio is taking something of a shortcut to bringing this Incredible Machine-style puzzler to market: it bought the rights to Casey's Contraptions and enlisted the developers, Miguel Friginal and Noel Llopis, to bring the title into the Rovio family. While that means it's not quite as fresh as it could be, the game has already piqued our interest and could be exposed to many (many, many) more players. While we wait, we'll pour one out for the managers and supervisors bound to lose hours of work from staff trying to finish just one more level.
Angry Birds Heikki: because F1 and fort-breaking games are like peanut butter and chocolate
We've seen Angry Birds go into strange places both figurative and literal, but Formula 1 racing? That's a less natural mix than a peanut butter cup. As a way of backing race driver and fellow Finland native Heikki Kovalainen, Rovio has crafted Angry Birds Heikki, a free web game themed all around its namesake's escapades during the F1 race year. The gameplay changes are more cosmetic than functional, although that leaderboard matters a little more in spirit than it might otherwise. Perhaps the biggest draw is simply that your gameplay schedule is intrinsically linked to Heikki's: new sections only unlock as the real-world races get near, so you'll have an incentive to keep coming back until the Sao Paulo race determines the F1 championship on November 21st. Let's just hope that there aren't too many road hogs spoiling either Heikki's fun or our own. [Thanks, Rodrigo]
Rovio is making a non-Angry Birds game
AllThingsD recently sat down to chat with Rovio CEO Mikael Hed, and while much of the news about Rovio from the past few years has been to do with its enormously popular Angry Birds franchise (the latest title of which will be Angry Birds Space -- stay tuned for more on that next month). But Hed suggests that the era of Angry Birds exclusivity at Rovio is almost over: The company is working on a brand-new, non-Angry Birds game. In the past, Rovio has made a big deal about its history on mobile games. Before Angry Birds got so big, Rovio did work on other mobile platforms, and actually made more than 30 other mobile games, of varying success. But Angry Birds is obviously its biggest property, and ever since the original bird-tossing game took off, Rovio has made just a few other titles, on iOS and other platforms, all of them somehow related to Angry Birds. Unfortunately, Hed didn't have any information on what this other game might be -- he says the company's been making lots of "fun" things, but obviously hasn't released anything but Angry Birds spinoffs yet. We wait with bated breath; Rovio seems like a great company, but another game from a different franchise will give the verdict on whether or not the Finnish game developer can follow up to its now enormous reputation.
Could the iPad 2 replace traditional video game consoles?
The iPad 2's new hardware and its popularity has led to speculation that tablet devices will soon replace consoles. Rovio Mobile's Peter Vesterbacka is the most vocal champion of this position and recently claimed during a South by Southwest panel that console games are "dying." Vesterbacka points to the lower price point of mobile games and their ability to be updated rapidly as two factors that will push mobile gaming ahead of consoles. While Vesterbacka talks smack about consoles, former Sony executive Phil Harrison takes a much more balanced approach towards this subject. Harrison acknowledges that tablet hardware is evolving so rapidly that tablets could rival that of the console. The Apple tablet has more than doubled its performance in a year, while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 remain unchanged after five years. Though the hardware evolution may outpace the consoles, the gaming experience of a tablet will be different than that of the console. "I think while there are clearly some compromises in terms of user interface and user experience on a tablet, the touch screen interface will enable other forms of game experience and game design that you couldn't do on a TV-based console," said Harrison, "so I think there's going to be a tradeoff. But I think the pads/tablets market is going to be a very vibrant market for games." Harrison points out the strength of the tablet gaming market comes from the diverse business models available to mobile game developers. Developers can choose to generate revenue from free, ad-supported applications, games with in-app micro transactions and paid games with value-added features like social networking. "These are 21st century business models that are going to prevail," says Harrison.
Angry Birds Rio will be exclusive to Amazon Appstore on Android launch
Think you'll be heading to the Android Market to get your next fix of Rovio Mobile's insanely popular Angry Birds? Think again. The next installment in the aviary vengeance saga, Angry Birds Rio, will launch exclusively on Amazon's upcoming Appstore for Android. That does sound like it will eventually achieve universal distribution via the Market, but in the interim Amazon has scored a pretty big scoop in its efforts to attract users to its own app repository. We're also promised the Appstore is launching "very soon" and Amazon has just inaugurated an @amazonappstore account on Twitter to keep us abreast of when precisely that will happen.
Angry Birds doing a movie tie-in as well
Hot on the heels of the announcement that Doodle Jump will be working with Universal to promote the upcoming Hop movie, Angry Birds developer Rovio Mobile confirmed it will be producing a new version of Angry Birds set in Rio. This new version will be used to promote the upcoming movie Rio, which is being produced by 20th Century Fox and developed by the folks behind the popular Ice Age series of animated children's movies. The movie will follow the adventures of two blue macaws, Blu and Jewel, who will also star in the new Angry Birds game. The amusing trailer for the game is included after the break and is worth a look for Angry Birds fans. The game will debut in March and will feature 45 new levels with additional levels available via app updates. This move by Rovio is yet another example of Hollywood eyeing the iOS platform for promotion and profits. This trend was kicked off in a big way when Disney acquired Tapulous, the developer of the popular Tap Tap series of games, and this is probably far from the last we'll see of it. You can check out the movie trailer after the jump. [Via touchArcade]
DeNA and Rovio Mobile chat from LeWeb '10 in Paris
Stuart Dredge over at MobileEntertainment is reporting live this week from Paris' LeWeb 2010 conference, and quite a few iPhone publishers and developers are in attendance and talking about Apple's platform and beyond. Of the most interest to us are probably the statements by Japanese publishers DeNA (who recently bought Ngmoco) and Angry Birds developer Rovio Mobile. First up, DeNA says it's still got acquisition money to spend, and while most of the company's business is currently running on feature phones in Japan, it's very much seeking out smartphone developers in North America and Europe to run social games on its platform. And DeNA's representative, Tomoko Namba, even says that Zynga would be welcome to join them. DeNA is trying to build a platform, not necessarily specific games. It'll be very interesting to see what happens with DeNA in the future -- it's clear that they don't know a lot about how to run mobile games in the US, but joining up with Ngmoco (and whoever else they pull on board) is a good way to learn how to do that. Rovio Mobile is at LeWeb as well, sharing that Angry Birds has reached 12 million paid downloads and 30 million free downloads on other platforms. The company says that ads have worked out very well on platforms besides iOS, but on iOS, with a trusted store in place, paid still seems to be their system of choice. Rovio also confirms that the game is probably headed to consoles next year and even teases some new, non-Angry Birds related titles coming in the near future. There's no question that 2010 was a landmark year for mobile gaming, so it'll be interesting to see what happens next year.
Angry Birds Christmas to be free upgrade to Halloween edition
Rovio has a free gift on the way for everyone that ponied up the $0.99 for the Halloween edition of Angry Birds. The promised Christmas edition of the super-addictive mobile game will be a free update for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. @RovioMobile responded to a query on Twitter confirming that the next edition of the game will come gratis. Rovio has not yet indicated whether it will start incorporating iAds into the iOS version of the game and giving it away as they have done with the AdMob-supported Android edition. Fortunately, the 7 million Android users helping the birds recover their eggs will be glad to know that the Christmas add-on will not be an iOS-exclusive like the Halloween edition. [via MobileBurn]
Rovio Mobile passing on Chillingo in the future
Chillingo closed a huge deal with EA yesterday (becoming the second big iPhone publisher in as many weeks to be picked up), but the company's work with its biggest title apparently left a bad taste in the mouth of the developers, Rovio Mobile. That company tells TechCrunch that they'll never work with Chillingo, or any publisher, again. That's not so much a reflection on Chillingo, though, as it is on Rovio's success -- Peter Vesterbacka says that with the way the App Store is set up, you just "don't need publishers" any more. For a lot of iPhone developers, I would disagree -- Chillingo has put together a nice set of iPhone titles over the past few years, and seeing their name on an iPhone game can give a nice boost in profile to a developer just starting out. Obviously EA agrees -- while this doesn't mean we'll see EA start taking advantage of the Angry Birds license (necessarily -- I'm sure Rovio is poking around in as many places as possible to recreate the Angry Birds game on other platforms), it does mean that EA is getting access to a significant amount of experience in creating, publishing, and marketing iPhone games. Chillingo seems to have a talent for finding titles of solid quality that are willing to experiment a little bit, so this should bring us some more EA games that are outside of the standard Madden/Need for Speed/Tiger Woods ilk. As an iPhone user, I'm excited about both the Chillingo and the Ngmoco deals recently -- both will create more options for two iPhone publishers who have made a solid name for themselves, as well as bring a little more standing to the platform at large as a great place to publish and release great games. Rovio's done with iPhone publishers, but the rest of us are just getting started.
Angry Birds officially lands on Android, made free for all
This game needs no introduction -- if you're using iOS, webOS or Symbian, chances are you would've already come across the endless hours of puzzle entertainment that is Angry Birds. Where's the Android version, you ask? Well, today's the day: not only has it now come out of beta, but it's also made free for all! The only small catch is that it's ad-supported, although we're pretty sure this isn't gonna stop you from grabbing it -- at the time of writing this, GetJar's website's taking a serious hit from avian fanatics around the world, so we suggest you go put on the kettle and try later. Enjoy! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Angry Birds developer claims Microsoft jumped the gun, Rovio 'not committed' to Windows Phone 7
Software developers make or break a platform, as Microsoft's Steve Ballmer once famously stressed, but that shiny new Windows Phone 7 site has angered a mildly important one. Rovio Mobile, developer of the wildly popular Angry Birds game, tweets that it's presently 'not committed' to bring the game to Windows Phone, and that the above icon is being used in Microsoft marketing completely without permission. While it's possible this is just some sort of mix-up and Rovio just wanted to make its own announcement ("nothing to do with if we do or don't, it's just that we decide that ourselves," the company added in a later tweet), it wouldn't be the first time Microsoft's engaged in shady business to inflate its new app store. Update: Microsoft sent TechFlash the following statement: "It appears information was mistakenly posted to Microsoft's website, and has been removed." Sure enough, the offending logo is gone now. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
App Review: Angry Birds (Android)
What does it take to make an addictive game? Not much -- just throw in some super simple controls, cute graphics, and basic physics. Rovio Mobile's Angry Birds is one such game that includes all these elements, and today the studio's just released a public Android beta to cater those without an iOS, webOS or Maemo 5 device. In case you're not already familiar with the popular title, the backstory is that a gang of hungry pigs snatched away some eggs from the birds, forcing the feathered creatures to embark on a rescue mission for the sake of their survival. The gameplay on the Android version is just as simple as before: in each level you use a fixed slingshot to fling the birds -- one at a time -- into the forts, in order to kill all the pigs inside. As a secondary challenge, you must also attempt to get a three-star rating depending on the amount of structural material you destroy, so the key is to perfect your shooting angle. At the beginning you're only given one type of bird that does nothing more than just headbutting, but throughout the game you'll come across six more birds, each possessing one special power: multiply, explode, accelerate, dropping egg bombs, boomerang, and extra strength. Don't worry, the instructions are pretty clear when you first meet these enhanced kamikaze birds -- most involve just a single tap anywhere to trigger their special abilities mid-flight. Once you get the hang of it, you'll soon be wanting to try out all sorts of trajectories to take vengeance on those cheeky green hogs. Seriously, the pigs really do laugh at you when your birds miss them. While we're not familiar with the Maemo 5 and webOS versions of Angry Birds, we've definitely spent a fair amount of time on the iOS flavor. Sadly, since the latter's still running on a low 480 x 320 resolution, the blurred graphics on the notoriously sharp retina display does no justice to the game. On the other hand, the Android version looks a lot prettier on our Nexus One, Dell Streak and HTC Desire, as it runs on their native resolution of 800 x 480. That said, overall the Android beta didn't feel as well-oiled as its iOS counterpart -- we've noticed the occasional light hiccups while panning across the scene, so here's hoping that this will be fixed in the final release. Regardless of this minor flaw, we'd still highly recommend Android users to check out this free Angry Birds beta in the market -- go grab it while it's hot!
