According to Reuters, Electronic Arts just bought Angry Birds publishers Chillingo for $20 million in cash.
Apparently early reports caused some confusion as to who actually owned Angry Birds and the difference between developer Rovio and publisher Chillingo. To clarify, Angry Birds developer Rovio Mobile has just tweeted the above, “We have not sold out. We have not sold to EA. We are Rovio. We own Angry Birds.”
Going by the above and the reported price, the Angry Birds franchise is not part of today’s sale. From Rovio Mobile; “We own all rights, Chillingo is just a publisher.”
Aside from recently debuting for free on the Android, the Angry Birds franchise has expanded into toys and games and has a rumored movie in the works.
Chillingo’s second most notable game after Angry Birds is something called Cut the Rope, also from a third party developer, ZeptoLab.
EA most recently acquired another social gaming company, Playfish, for $300 million in cash and $100 million in earnout.
Update: Angry Birds “Mighty Eagle” Peter Vesterbacka tells TechCrunch,
“We’re remaining an independent company and are continuing full speed ahead. This sale has no impact on us, as Chillingo is just a publisher of the iPhone and iPad games, and that’s it.”
Rovio is an industry-changing entertainment media company based in Finland, and the creator of the globally successful Angry Birds franchise. Angry Birds, a casual puzzle game, became an international phenomenon within a year of release, and is now the number one paid app of all time. Following this success in mobile gaming, Angry Birds has expanded rapidly in entertainment, publishing, and licensing to become a beloved international brand.
A Games publisher who specialises in digital distribution across multiple platforms. Chillingo has published games for iPhone and iPod touch, iPad, Wii, PSP Mini and Xbox arcade. Innovate. Publish. Play.
Electronic Arts is an American developer and publisher of computer and video games. They own well known game studios such as Bioware, Mythic, and Maxis games and have developed titles from the Need for Speed series to Crysis.
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Boston, MA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
