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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.
Rovio picks up $42 million in first funding round
Rovio, the makers of Angry Birds, has nabbed a total of $42 million in a first round of venture capitalist funding. This isn't necessarily quite that big a payday for the company -- while that's obviously a lot of money, the company has reportedly already pulled in about $70 million from app sales and the various licensing money it's been making off of those frustrated flyers and their grunty pig counterparts. But what this does mean is that any company looking to buy Rovio will have a tougher time of it, since the Finnish mobile game developer is now worth that much more. Of course, going from what I saw of Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka at last week's GDC conference, I strongly doubt the company wants to be bought anyway. Vesterbacka seems to believe that Angry Birds is more or less vindication for the other fifty games his company made before it, and he's interested in having Rovio ride this franchise for as long as it will carry them. It's possible Rovio could get acquired (if the check gets big enough), but since Vesterbacka believes there's a lot more to do with Angry Birds, my guess is he'll use the money he's already put together to stay his own company.
Angry Birds continues PSN domination in February
The PlayStation Store had some noteworthy releases in February: Explodemon, Stacking, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2. But none of these new releases managed to chart in PSN's monthly sales numbers. Instead, you'll see some familiar names on the top 5 list, including Angry Birds, which continues its second month of bestselling sales. Angry Birds Plants vs. Zombies Tetris Pac-Man Championship Edition DX Mortal Kombat II In addition to Angry Birds, the appearance of a PopCap game, a Tetris game, and a Pac-Man game tell us that casual games are key to making your way to the top of the PlayStation Network.
Angry Birds being flung to Facebook
Rovio's continued success with the Angry Birds franchise means we'll be seeing much more from the Finland-based devs in the coming months -- the company says it's taking a "Disney 2.0" approach to fleecing its bird-flinging franchise. "Look at how Disney got started. Steamboat Willie created Mickey Mouse, then they added more characters. You can see the same pattern today, but everything is happening much, much faster," studio lead Mikael Hed explains in a recent Wired UK piece (via Develop), adding, "Other brands used to build recognition over the course of decades. We've done it in one year." A "collaborative" Facebook version of the game, as well as potential sports and driving spin-offs, are specifically named. Hed says the Facebook version will have "completely new aspects to it that just haven't been experienced in any other platform," and that "the pigs will have a more prominent role." No word is given on when the game will launch on the 'book. This is, of course, in addition to the planned XBLA, Wii, and 3DS versions (it's already out on PSN). There's also a board game. And merchandise. And ... uhh ... this terrifying live-action version.
Conan plays life-sized Angry Birds with Ikea furniture
We've been jonesing to see a life-size version of Angry Birds since Neil Patrick Harris teased us with his chicken catapult during the VGAs. Yesterday on Conan, we got our wish -- not with real-life poultry, mind you, but with bird-shaped balls and really unstable Ikea furniture.
Angry Birds passes 30 million downloads on Android
Turns out people like Angry Birds -- and free things. The freemium Android release of Rovio Mobile's wing-slinging hit has been downloaded over 30 million times, according to Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka, who is speaking at GDC as part of a Google-run Android monetization panel. He also provided evidence that people continue playing Angry Birds after that initial download. 80 percent of Android users, Vesterbacka said, downloaded subsequent updates, indicating that they've retained interest in the game. This is good news for Rovio, but bad news for those birds -- sustained anger isn't good for you.
GDC 2011: Building the Angry Birds franchise
Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka hosted an entertaining panel on the first day of the 2011 Game Developers Conference here in San Francisco. Rovio's app, Angry Birds, is the runaway hit of Apple's iOS platform, signifying both the potential reach of iOS games and the chance for indie mobile developers to create gigantic hits. Vesterbacka, speaking in his Finnish accent, was almost arrogant at times during his talk, saying that after last year's GDC, Rovio is "a bit more popular now for some reason," and that while people laughed at his predictions of 100 million downloads for the game across all the platforms, Rovio is basically there. But he was also informative and helpful, and he thanked Apple multiple times during the talk. Rovio's made 52 different mobile games so far, and Vesterbacka credited Apple for changing the tempo around the mobile games market. Before Apple, mobile carriers held all of the power, and carriers both a) wanted a lot of games for their specific platforms, and b) didn't care about the quality. Vesterbacka joked about pitching Angry Birds to a carrier before the App Store: "It's a game where you slingshot birds at three pigs," he said, and then he mimicked the reply to the crowd's laughter: "It's not a poker game? Not interested."
Overheard@GDC: Credit where credit's due
"What physics engine did you use for Angry Birds?" --Man "Box2d" --Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio "Would you be willing to credit it?" --Man "Yes" --Vesterbacka "I'm the creator of Box2d." --Erin Catto, creator of Box2d Following this exchange -- which took place during Rovio's panel on its multi-million-dollar franchise -- a smiling, caught-off-guard Vesterbacka said that the company would credit Box2d as the physics engine it uses if Catto would see him after the Q&A session. [Image: The Clock Blog]
Angry Birds getting St. Patrick's Day update
Rovio's "Mighty Eagle," Peter Vesterbacka, announced during his day-one GDC panel that -- unsurprisingly -- all major holidays will eventually be worked into themed updates for the company's mega-hit Angry Birds, including the upcoming St. Patrick's Day. According to Vesterbacka, the new content will be "very green" and "filled with more pigs than ever." The millions of Angry Birds addicts should be tickled pink by this news. Speaking of addicts, Vesterbacka says that you (yes, you!) really like the option to buy the Mighty Eagle power-up. He reports that 40 percent of all players who've purchased Angry Birds since the "smart bomb" style, level-skipping item was introduced last December have bought it at least once -- at 99 cents a pop.
TUAW's Daily App: Tiny Wings
Some games and apps picked for our Daily App become hits after they get selected, but others sort of pop out of the App Store as fully-formed hits already, and we just follow along. Tiny Wings is one of the latter. It's already a huge hit, having beat out Angry Birds for the top paid spot on the App Store. If you haven't played it yet, it's definitely worth a try. In Tiny Wings, you're a little bird with (surprise) tiny wings. By touching the screen, you can speed the cute little guy up and down hills that he can ramp off of, trying to travel as far as possible while collecting speed boosts. Like some of the best games on the App Store, it's hard to explain, but it's very easy to play. Just a moment with Tiny Wings is all it takes to figure it out. The gorgeous art and music make the experience casually excellent; it's very simple to jump into, but kind of tough to master. I can't recommend Tiny Wings enough. If you haven't picked it up on the App Store for US$0.99 yet, odds are you will soon anyway. This is developer Andreas Illiger's first app, but it looks like he struck gold on his first try.
Windows Phone 7 getting six weeks of 'Must Have Games' this Spring, Fable Coin Golf in March
Microsoft is treating its phone platform like a console, planning a release "event" for its Xbox Live games on Windows Phone 7. This spring, Microsoft's mobile platform will get six weeks of "Must Have Games," including Plants vs. Zombies, Hydro Thunder, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, Doodle Jump and more. The press release reiterates that the games, like all Xbox Live games on the platform, include Achievements and leaderboards. The platform will also be the exclusive home to Fable Coin Golf. Available in March, Coin Golf will let you transfer gold earned in the game to either the PC or console versions of Fable 3. Connecting the console and mobile game will also unlock "three exclusive weapons that can be used in the Traitor's Keep game add-on." The announcement coincides with the expansion of the Windows Phone platform to another carrier in the US. Sprint's HTC Arrive is the first WP7 device for the carrier, and will be available in March. Update: WinRumors indicates that Angry Birds will be among the WP7 releases during the "Must Have Games" promotion.
Father of the Year makes working Angry Birds birthday cake
You might have a wonderful father. This video, unfortunately, will knock him down a few pegs. Seriously, this father made a functional Angry Birds cake for his son's sixth birthday. Watch the video, and feel your childhood worsen retroactively. Click this link to learn how to be a better father.
Mass Effect 2 wins GOTY, RPG, storytelling awards at DICE 2011
Tonight's 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (i.e., the DICE awards) saw Mass Effect 2 cruise off with honors for Game of the Year, RPG of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Story. However, Red Dead Redemption ended up with more trophies, riding away with wins for Action Game of the Year and Outstanding Character Performance, along with Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, Art Direction and Gameplay Engineering. The portable and casual categories were filled with rage, as God of War: Ghost of Sparta won the award for Portable Game of the Year, while Casual Game of the Year went to the ferocious fowls of Angry Birds HD. Check out the full list of award recipients after the break.
Super Meat Boy postmortem, Angry Birds and Zynga talks announced for GDC 2011
In case you didn't know, it's the 25th anniversary of the Game Developers Conference this year, and that means a load of extra special presentations. Beyond the head of Nintendo keynoting, the laundry list of legendary developers giving "classic" postmortems, and various announcements, it was revealed today that Super Meat Boy devs Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes ("Team Meat") will be giving a postmortem of their own. And hey, we think they're pretty extra special. Additionally, Zynga VP of product development Mark Skaggs will be discussing his company's evolution, framed around the release of FarmVille and the push towards CityVille over the last year -- we'd suggest fledgling Facebook millionaires not be late. And finally, rounding out today's announcement is news of an Angry Birds talk from Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka (self-claimed "Head Eagle" at the studio). We'll be on hand at GDC bringing you all the meaty, free-to-play, bird-flinging news as it breaks.
Angry Birds is top PSN download in January, Mass Effect 2 comes in at #8
No wonder developers are jumping ship to Rovio: it's flooded with money. Angry Birds has managed to perch itself atop not only the iOS and Android marketplaces, but it has claimed the top spot on the PlayStation Store as well. Released as a mini, the port works on both PS3 and PSP, which undoubtedly helped its sales. The rest of the top 10 for January include: Angry Birds Tetris X-Men Pac-Man Championship Edition DX Final Fantasy VII Wheel of Fortune Marvel vs Capcom 2 Mass Effect 2 Castle Crashers Risk Factions Mass Effect 2 is a surprising addition to the top downloads list, considering it is a full $60 game. Perhaps the success of Bioware's RPG will cause more publishers to consider releasing full retail games via the PlayStation Store?
Super Bowl 'Rio' commercial reveals secret behind Angry Birds easter egg
Last night's blockbuster football contest might not have featured the most hee-larious advertisements in all of Super Bowl history -- but you can't say they weren't rewarding. Take, for instance, the trailer for 20th Century Fox's Rio, which featured a split-second image of one of the avian protagonists of Angry Birds, as well as the numbers "13-12." A few of the game's more dedicated players have cracked that riddle -- firing off the birds in a specific sequence and direction on said stage unlocks a special, Super Bowl-themed level, provided you've updated to the most recent version of the game. Check out a video after the jump to see how the bird-firing maneuver is properly executed. Also, we'd like to see more video game easter eggs in television commercials, please. Trust us, ad executives, it's good for you too -- we must have watched that freaking Rio commercial like, twenty times now.
Angry Birds ties into Super Bowl ad with secret level hint
During the Super Bowl game last night, you may have seen an ad for a soon-to-be-released animated feature called Rio. Cleverly tied into that advertisement was a way to get access to a secret level in that special app installed on just about every iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod touch in the universe: Angry Birds. If you happened to be watching closely about 26 seconds into the 32 second ad, you would have seen the infamous red bird, a golden egg and the numbers 13-12 on a wall behind a couple of characters from the movie. According to ex-TUAW blogger and current Mashable writer Christina Warren (Hi, C-Mac!), to uncover a special golden egg, you need to go to level 13-12, shoot a white bird backwards and then drop an egg (I am not making this up). Performing this arcane ritual will reward the patient Angry Birds player with a football-shaped golden egg. Completing the game level gives you the opportunity to enter a contest to attend the Rio premiere. Let's make sure it's an Apple fan (and hopefully a TUAW reader) who is walking the red carpet the night of the premiere. Rovio, the publisher of Angry Birds, will also be delivering a special Rio version of the game when the film is released on March 22, 2011. Check out the ad video on the next page if you think that we may have Photoshopped the image seen at the top of this post.
Remedy co-founder joins Rovio to bring Angry Birds to consoles
Petri Järvilehto, one of the founders of Remedy Entertainment, has joined fellow Finnish developer Rovio Mobile as senior vice president of console development. Serving in this new role, Järvi– er, let's just go with Petri ... will spearhead Rovio's efforts to "take the Angry Birds success story to current and emerging console platforms." Currently, a port of the original Angry Birds smartphone game is available for PS3 as a PSN Mini, but Rovio looks to be aiming for new heights as it prepares to launch its flightless birds into future console games. "We want to make Angry Birds a long-lasting global gaming franchise, and we see the console platforms as a way of delivering an even more entertaining, powerful and involving experience," Rovio CEO Mikael Hed said in a press release, perhaps hinting at the dark, psychological turn the bird-launching series could take on consoles. "I think we're only in the beginning, and with consoles we have the opportunity to create a new kind of gaming experience," Petri added, ending on a cliffhanger. To get a sense of where he's coming from -- and just how completely different it is from Angry Birds -- Petri personally led the development of Max Payne 1 & 2 and headed up the initial game design of last year's standout Xbox 360 exclusive Alan Wake. He will remain on Remedy's board of directors.
Video: Angry Birds played in real life
Be honest, what's the one thing you would do if you had a giant slingshot lying around. Of course you would set up a real-life version of Angry Birds. Who wouldn't? Seriously, having a giant slingshot and not playing real-life Angry Birds would be a crime against humanity.
Angry Birds also flying to 3DS
Just in case you didn't get the memo: developer Rovio is planning on bringing Angry Birds to every platform imaginable -- including platforms that aren't out yet. Speaking with 3DS Focus, the team confirmed plans to bring all three Angry Birds games to the 3DS as downloadable titles "later this year," including the recently-announced Angry Birds Rio. A behind-the-slingshot 3D camera would certainly make the best use of the handheld's capabilities, but that's undoubtedly a pipe dream. In case you don't already have it on your phone, Angry Birds is also out now for PS3 and PSP.
