Who would have thought that slingshotting birds at walls would be so much fun? With over 350 million downloads over multiple platforms, it is safe to say that Angry Birds is a bit of a hit. In fact, it might be a full on phenomena.
Developed by Finnish developer Rovio Mobile, the game helped redefine mobile gaming, and showed many developers that the mobile market could lead to massive success. Angry Bird’s publisher, Chillingo, went on to be purchased by EA for a cool $20 million, which was a steal compared to EA’s earlier purchase of Playfish for $400 million. Compare those to the mobile gaming king, Zynga, developer of the ridiculously popular social network games like Farmville and Texas HoldEm Poker, which is said to be worth between $15 and $20 billion, and the mobile gaming industry is a burgeoning, and potentially lucrative one. And it is one that Rovio wants a bigger piece of.
According to Develop, Rovio has already approached several independent developers about acting as their publisher. Rovio has confirmed that it has plans for the publishing world, but is not ready to disclose what they are. In March the company–which is worth $1.2 billion on the New York Stock Exchange–raised $42 million, although it has not yet revealed what those funds will be used for.
In the meantime, if you can’t get enough Angry Birds, keep an eye out for the proposed Angry Birds TV show, or head on over to China for a real-life Angry Birds setup (although minus real birds and pigs, because that would be sick and wrong). There is also a cookbook, baby clothing and various merchandising tie-ins on the way.
