Barely a year after it was officially released in December 2009 for the Apple iOS, mobile video game “Angry Birds” has sold over 12 million copies from the Apple App Store.
Rovio Entertainment, the Finnish computer game developer who created “Angry Birds,” subsequently started designing versions of the game for other touch-screen smartphones including Android, Symbian and Windows mobile operating systems.
Because of its successful combination of enticing gameplay, comical style and affordability, “Angry Birds” has since expanded to video gaming consoles and the PC.
“Angry Birds” has spawned 12 instalments, with the latest two to be released this year officially titled “Angry Birds Fight!” and “Angry Birds Under Pigstruction.”
The video game has also resulted to three spinoff series, namely: “Bad Piggies” released in 2012, “Angry Birds Stella” released in 2014, and “Angry Birds Stella POP!” released this year.
“Angry Birds” has since registered 2 billion downloads across all platforms, making it the highest downloaded freemium series of games of all time.
About to be forgotten birds
Although still very popular among mobile video gamers, “Angry Birds” and its series of games have somehow lost its luster with the emergence of new mobile games including “Candy Crush Saga,” “Clash of Clans,” “Game of War,” among several others in a very competitive mobile gaming market.
It has since played second fiddle to these mobile video games that offered something new in terms of visuals and excitement.
The mobile gaming market is also very lucrative as it could actually hit $30 billion this year according to a latest report from a market research firm, notes Venture Beat.
But Rovio is not to go down without a fight. In fact, the Finnish developer is not planning to go down at all. It’s latest spinoff series “Angry Birds: Stella,” and “Angry Birds: Stella POP!” appear to be its brightest spot, as the two games combined for 35 million download times since their released last year and this year respectively. The second spinoff series also is a big hit among young women.
Building on the gains
Having seen the right road to its recovery in the mobile gaming market, Rovio would like to capitalize on the momentum and build on the gains and headways of the two spinoff series since last year to give current market competitors a serious run for the money.
The Finnish developer is actually launching its “Lily Lagoon” update for the “Angry Birds: Stella POP!” game that would add 20 new levels of gameplay to the video game.