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Rovio wants a billion daily active users
Angry Birds maker Rovio's head Peter Vesterbacka stood up on stage in Helsinki last week, and told the assembled crowd that his company wants to eventually have a full 1 billion daily active users. Daily active users, or DAUs, is a measure used in tabulating mobile app success, and it's often a good indicator of just how engaged people are with a given app. Most smaller apps might claim a few hundred daily active users, and a very popular app might claim a few million. But Vesterbacka says Rovio wants a billion. At that point, you're not talking about an app any more, you're talking about a brand that's competing with some of the most storied and historic brands in the world. "We want to be the first entertainment brand with 1 billion fans [using the game] every day, watching animations, using our services," said Vesterbacka. "People think of the one company people use daily, which is Coca-Cola, and that's just a soft drink. So it should be straightforward for us to get to 1 billion fans every day in the next two to three years." Straightforward? Sure, whatever. Vesterbacka also said that China has overtaken the US in terms of most Angry Birds fans playing every day. And while Rovio has been testing the waters with releases outside of the Angry Birds brand lately, Vesterbacka says that's not necessary: "We want to make Angry Birds as big as it can be and very much a part of pop culture. We don't need to do anything else." As popular as this game continues to be, that may in fact be true.
Daily Update for November 23, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Daily Update for November 8, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
PSA: Angry Birds Star Wars is no longer far, far away, out now
Rovio catapulted Angry Birds Star Wars into hyper-availability today, the game now live on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 tablets, Kindle Fire, PC, and Mac. The developer promises over 80 levels of crossover larks, in which you guide the Rebel Birds through the trials and tribulations of deep-space physics as they flap their way towards, yup, the Pig Star.Rovio also unveiled the above "cinematic" trailer, which offers an Angry Birds take on the iconic Mos Eisley Cantina scene from A New Hope. It's probably truer to the original than the digitally remastered re-release.
Angry Birds Star Wars now available for iOS and OS X
Rovio launched its much-anticipated Star Wars version of Angry Birds for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. The sci-fi themed edition will let you grab a lightsaber and use the force against those troublesome pigtroopers. The iPhone and iPod touch edition will set you back US$0.99, while the iPad version will sell for $2.99 from the iOS App store. Mac owners can also grab a desktop version of the app for $4.99 from the Mac App Store.
Angry Birds Star Wars adds sci-fi flavor to bird flinging, available today, we go hands-on
Finland's biggest game studio is heading back into the coop, pulling out its Angry Birds franchise for yet another go on a whole mess of platforms -- this time, even Windows 8 and its mobile counterpart get some attention. Moreover, Rovio's teamed with the folks at LucasArts (now part of the Disney family) to craft an entirely thematic experience: enter Angry Birds Star Wars. But fret not -- just because Angry Birds Star Wars seems like a shameless tie-in doesn't mean it's a bad game (it is, however, a shameless tie-in, no matter which way you cut it). In fact, it's quite good, melding pieces of Angry Birds Space -- arguably the best and most creative entry in the Angry Birds franchise -- with new gameplay elements. Rather than birds which explode or other such modifiers, post-fling, Angry Birds Star Wars equips each of several themed birds with one weapon apiece. An Obi-Wan Kenobi-themed bird uses The Force to push enemies or blocks, while a Han Solo-themed bird fires three blasts from a space pistol, just to name a few. That Angry Birds Space component is little more than gravity effects, but it helps to mix up the often redundant level design -- if you've played more than one Angry Birds game, you've seen most of what's on offer here. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, per se, but be forewarned if you're expecting the kind of innovation we saw from Rovio's last Angry Birds spinoff, Bad Piggies. Angry Birds Star Wars launches today on iOS ($0.99 / iPhone, $2.99 / iPad), Android (Free SD version, HD is $2.99), Amazon Kindle Fire, Mac ($4.99), PC, Windows Phone ($0.99), and Windows 8 ($4.99). Go after the break to check out the cinematic and gameplay trailers, along with the PR.
Angry Birds Star Wars character video wrap up
Previously on Angry Birds Star Wars... Angry Birds Luke and Leia, followed by C3PO and R2-D2 slammed into imperial piggie stuff. Since we noticed a theme developing, we decided to hold off and post the latest trailer, with Han, Chewie, Obi-Wan and Darth Piggie here.
Angry Birds Star Wars has droids, works on Droid
Angry Birds Star Wars – now a collaboration between developer Rovio and the Walt Disney Company – jettisoned its latest trailer today, featuring everyone's favorite droid life partners. ABSW will use the force of fingers on November 8 across iOS, Android, and Windows 8 PCs.
Angry Birds Star Wars flings in first gameplay trailer
Angry Birds Star Wars will be flung through hyperspace toward iOS, Android, and Windows 8 PCs on November 8. Here's the first look at gameplay, featuring Angry Birds Luke and Leia.
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?
This is a Bad Piggies interactive cookbook on iPad
Rovio has revealed and released an interactive Bad Piggies cookbook app, now available on iPad at 99 cents for a limited time. Titled Bad Piggies Best Egg Recipes, the app's regular price is $4.99. That's a significant leap from the promotional offer. However, compared to the $14.99 RRP of last year's physical version from which the app is adapted, it's a significant drop.So, just in case you needed Angry Birds to invade some other part of your formerly Angry Birds-less culture, now there's an interactive cookbook. Although outside of sharing photos of your dishes on social media and setting an in-app egg timer, the interactivity is limited to pressing on the occasional illustration and seeing a brief animation. That's the same shtick early 90s CD-ROM games used, but at least it's better than just making a book digital.The app contains 41 egg recipes, graded in difficulty, with simple step-by-step instructions. You may scoff, but when you consider how many people have downloaded the Angry Birds and Bad Piggies games, the potential success of this app really is no yolk. [You're in for a real beating over this line. - Ed.]
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.
Angry Birds Star Wars coming to your galaxy November 8
A long time ago, in an iOS app far, far away.... Back in 2009, an iPhone-exclusive game called Angry Birds arrived and became an instant hit. The game has become a huge franchise, with five sequels generating over 1 billion downloads on a number of platforms. Now Rovio has released a trailer for Angry Birds Star Wars, to be released November 8 on iOS, Android, OS X and Windows. Angry Birds Star Wars follows on the heels of Bad Piggies, the spin-off game that lets players experience the viewpoint of the much-maligned pigs in the original game. There's no word yet on the price for the new addition to the Angry Birds universe.
Angry Birds Stars Wars sets coordinates for November 8 [update: platforms]
Angry Birds Star Wars is kicking into hyperdrive on November 8, Rovio today revealed. According to USA Today, the game is coming to iOS, Android, and Windows 8 PCs. Along with the above video, Lucasfilm and Rovio released the below promotional image. According to Lucasfilm licensing and consumer products marketing VP Paul Southern, the above characters aren't just "Angry Birds dressed up as Star Wars characters," but they do have "personalities which are kind of similar" to their counterparts. We can already imagine the names: Luke Skysquawker, Chewpecker... actually, that's all we've got.Perhaps unsurprisingly, the game uses the physics of Angry Birds Space, but is set on recognizable locations from the Star Wars series. We may well learn more details after the Times Square reveal later today.Update: Rovio lets us know the game is coming to iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle Fire, Mac, PC (including Windows 8), and Windows Phone.
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.
Angry Birds and Star Wars joining forces in a series of products
While the teaser from earlier this week indicated that a downloadable Star Wars-themed Angry Birds game was on the way from Rovio, the Idlehands blog published leaked images of upcoming board games and figures that mash up the two brands.The above image for a Star Wars Angry Birds Jenga game by Hasbro was also listed on Amazon.de. Rovio is scheduled to hold an event Monday in New York, where more information on these products may be revealed.
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]
Star Wars Angry Birds teased
The folks behind Angry Birds and Star Wars license holders have apparently been talking: Rovio has tweeted an image of what appears to be a rotund Angry Bird in classic Star Wars robes, saying "Who could this be?"Additionally, an unknown official tumblr has surfaced with an animated version of the image that literally sheds a bit more light on the bird, but unfortunately not on the situation. We've reached out to Rovio for more information, but for now just sit back and think about the first time you ever saw The Empire Strikes Back. Remember all the weird space birds attacking the Millennium Falcon inside the worm's stomach? Yeah.Update: Rovio has tweeted a link directly to the Angry Birds tumblr mentioned, confirming its legitimacy. We've replaced this article's original header image with the animated version for maximum lightsaber-ness.
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.
Bad Piggies is Rovio's quickest selling #1 game, free content update coming soon
A Rovio-developed gaming reaching the number-one slot on the App Store isn't really all that surprising in this day in age, so the Finnish studio has instead started measuring how quickly its releases make it to the top of the pile.Bad Piggies, the company's swine/inventor simulator and latest release, shattered previous records set by Angry Birds Space and Amazing Alex by reaching the pinnacle of Apple's App Store barely three hours after its launch on September 27.Rovio has also announced that Bad Piggies' first free update -- "Flight Into The Night" -- will be released within "the next few weeks" and will contain more levels, unlockable content and "exciting plot twists," which we can only assume will be M. Night Shyamalanish in nature. "It was me," the piggie thought to himself. "I was the angry one all along."
