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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 employing a growing percentage of Finland
Out of the variety of numbers included in this morning's Rovio 2011 financial report, one line stuck out to us as particularly insane: the employee count. Rovio wasn't a very large company before Angry Birds exploded in late 2009, having only produced a couple dozen under-the-radar mobile titles. But by 2011, the need for expansion was clearly there.Resultantly, employee numbers similarly exploded – from just 28 employees in early 2011 to a whopping 224 at year's end. In case that isn't a dramatic enough statement unto itself, Valve Software employs 293 people, and Valve has quite a few more things to manage. Our biggest fear – a fear that many Rovio employees likely echo – is that the massive upscaling of jobs will result in a massive downscaling should the Angry Birds franchise lose its foothold as king of mobile distractions. Not exactly a new business model in the game industry, unfortunately.For now at least, Rovio's employing a ton of Finnish devs to craft its bird flingers and related products. Someone's gotta think of these clever marketing vices, you know!
Angry Birds Space trailer, brought to you by NASA [Update: Screens and details]
This teaser for Angry Birds Space not only has the cooperation of NASA, it was filmed on the International Space Station, featuring a live Angry Birds demonstration and physics lesson from astronaut Don Pettit.All right, Rovio, that's pretty damn cool. As a nice bonus, there's gameplay footage at the end too, showing what appear to be weightless environments, many built around small circular planets.Update: Rovio has sent along some screenshots and some more information. Angry Birds Space will feature 60 levels, new birds, new abilities, secret bonus levels and, of course, the gravity tricks seen in the trailer. The app will receive "regular free updates" and will feature in-app purchases.[Thanks, Jason]%Gallery-150243%
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.
Report: Rovio mulling Hong Kong IPO in 2013
Finnish school for agitated ornithological research mobile mogul Rovio may be looking to capitalize on its world-wide brand recognition and ridiculous, un-ending revenue stream by listing its stock on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2013, assuming the world still exists in 2013, that is. The financial liquidity inherent in Asia's increasingly prosperous business climate makes for an excellent pro-IPO opportunity, according to Finnish outlet Tekniikka & Talous. While no official announcements have been made as of yet, an IPO in Rovio's immediate future makes sense considering that the developer is currently valued between $2.6 and $9.1 billion and recently turned down $2.25 billion from Zynga.
Angry Birds studio head claims $1.2B valuation too low, 'maybe' going public next year
Angry Birds is way, way popular -- sure -- but it is so popular as to elevate its progenitor's valuation beyond that of its already sky-high $1.2 billion estimate? CEO Peter Vesterbacka seems to think so, telling Bloomberg, "We're happy with our valuation but we think it's probably a bit north of that," referring to the aforementioned insanely high number. Beyond astronomical sales of the hit fowl flinger, Vesterbacka's company has been pulling in additional revenue from merchandising. Millions of dollars every month, in fact, via the company's website -- apparently just the stuffed toys are selling "a million units a month," which doesn't account for Halloween costumes, movie licensing, clothing, and various other tchochkes. "We are very, very profitable. We're not a publicly traded company yet we can fund our own growth," Vesterbacka boasts in the interview, all the while attempting to bolster his company's value when it does go public. He doesn't offer an exact date, but says, "maybe a year from now" Rovio will be making its public stock offer. When we last asked market analysts back in March how Rovio would fare an IPO, we were answered with reservation. And despite another seven months of earnings under the company's belt, we'd wager Vesterbacka's valuation estimates are a bit more lofty than the reality of things. But hey, we're not running any multimillion dollar corporations.
Angry Birds launch assault on internet browsers, Chrome OS
Finnish developer Rovio Mobile marked yet another victory in its ongoing plan to bring the incredibly popular Angry Birds to every possible electronic device that human beings use, announcing during Google's I/O 2011 Conference that Angry Birds is available as an in-browser application. Like ... right now! Like the Android version, it's free-to-play and microtransaction-supported, but unlike the Android version, a handful of web-exclusive features have been added. Notably, "Chrome bombs" and some "exclusive Chrome levels" are both new additions -- unsurprisingly, the pay-per-use "Mighty Eagle" will return. And yes, you can play the game in browsers other than Chrome (and in operating systems other than Chrome OS).
10 million flock to download Angry Birds Rio
It took just ten days for Angry Birds Rio -- the movie tie-in spinoff of Angry Birds -- to land on over 10 million mobile phones. An ambiguous tweet from Angry Birds dev Rovio announced the news, stating, "10 in 10 ... Angry Birds Rio breaking all records. A massive thanks to all our fans!!!" Mobile-Ent.biz clarified the tweet's meaning moments later, asking if the "10 in 10" was referring to 10 million downloads in the first 10 days. Unfortunately, Rovio didn't parse which of those 10 million downloads were of the game's Android version versus the iOS version -- Angry Birds Rio is free through Amazon's Droid Marketplace, whereas it costs $1 for iOS devices. That said, even if only half of those sales were of the $1 version, that's roughly $3.5 million after Apple takes its 30 percent. Not too shabby for 10 days on the market!
Download Intel AppUp Center, get free Angry Birds
Bribing people to use new app stores with free Angry Birds is the hot new thing. Soon after Amazon offered a free Android download of Angry Birds Rio as its inaugural Appstore offer, Best Buy and Intel are partnering to slingshot a free PC version of Rovio's mobile hit to US residents via the Intel AppUp Center. The only catch is that, you know, you have to use the AppUp store. Click here to find the offer. If you're in the UK, there's no need to be angry (unless you're a bird): the same offer is available to you through Currys. [Thanks, Marco]
Amazon Android Appstore is live, offering free Angry Birds Rio
Amazon's officially dipped its toes into the cool, clear waters of Android software market, launching its own App Store earlier today. Folks can search for apps using the online retailer's familiar database, and can even find a sweet little early adopter bonus today: Rovio Mobile's (Amazon-exclusive) Angry Birds Rio, marked down from $0.99 to the considerably lower $0.00. You might want to considering bookmarking that particular site for your future perusal -- according to a banner at the top of the page, Amazon's Android store will offer one paid app for free every day. [Thanks, Justin!]
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.
Android Angry Birds Rio exclusive to Amazon Appstore
A retailer exclusivity agreement has been announced for a promotional game, potentially limiting its ability to reach users and promote the movie, but also increasing the promotion for the retailer. Amazon announced that it will be the exclusive carrier of the Android version of Angry Birds Rio, meaning that the movie tie-in title will not be available on the Android Market at launch, but will instead be downloadable through the Amazon Appstore. What? "Amazon Appstore?" The retailer is launching its own digital marketplace for Android "very soon," and you would do well to familiarize yourself with it, because it'll also be home to "exclusive" debuts for ad-free Angry Birds and Angry Birds Seasons.
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.
