I’m not even going to pretend that you don’t know what Angry Birds is… that would be insulting to both you and the game. But do you know what Angry Birds Space is? Nah, I didn’t think so. And truth be told, I’m not quite sure what it is either.
According to Rovio, Angry Birds Space will be the biggest launch for the company to date. Remember what a big deal Angry Birds Rio was with that… → Read More
Eat your heart out, Clark Griswold.
This fully interactive Christmas lights display should erase any doubt that Angry Birds is an ubiquitous fixture in pop culture. Rovio’s game was everywhere this year from unofficial Chinese themeparks, to a cookbooks and mooncakes. Rovio’s CMO Peter Vesterbacka’s wife even wore an Angry Birds formal gown to a state gala. But all of those appearances pale in… → Read More
Going to a fancy State Gala? Married to a Rovio executive? Angry Birds dresses are SO IN this season.
If you’ve ever met Rovio CMO Peter Vesterbacka, you’ve probably learned two things: 1) Peter is good people, and 2) he really, really likes his Angry Birds sweatshirt. It’s rare to see him not wearing one. I’m convinced he travels with a suitcase full of them and burns each one after wearing as… → Read More
Last month, Alexia posted a short manifesto (“Stop Making Apps”), which basically expresses a serious case of app fatigue. It’s something most of us can relate to, at least passingly, in spite of knowing there’s no end to app production in sight. As long as there are downloaders, more apps there will be.
While I encourage developers to continue making great apps, I do question the need for… → Read More
Ready for this week’s tale of someone turning down an absurd mountain of money in exchange for their company?
According to a report by the New York Times, Rovio — makers of the Angry Birds series (and the accompanying heap of Angry Birds merchandise so plentiful that they’ve started opening up retail stores) — turned down $2.25 billion this past summer. The would-be buyer? Zynga. → Read More
With Angry Birds, Rovio found a way to transform normal, healthy people into raging bird-flinging addicts. This isn’t really that big of a deal — at least not in most cases — unless some shady app developers begin impersonating Rovio and selling fake apps on the Android Market.
Did I mention that some shady app developers have started impersonating Rovio and selling fake apps on… → Read More
At the Slush 2011 event held today in Finland, Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka revealed a huge milestone for the company’s hit game, Angry Birds—500 million downloads over the past two years. Vesterbacka claims that’s the fastest growing game and most downloads of any game ever.
It’s no secret that the game has been growing fast without any marketing dollars being spent. It looks like Angry… → Read More
As proven by the massive success of the Angry Birds plush line, the world has a hungry for real-world Angry Birds wares. No where is that more apparent than Beijing, where the halls of countless toy shops and electronics stores are filled foot to ceiling with sundry Bird-themed goods, from sweatshirts and jeans to candy and balloons. The catch? Rovio didn’t authorize any of it.
Where others may… → Read More
Well, Rovio doesn’t need much of an introduction: It’s the company behind the now ubiquitous game that features everybody’s favorite affronted and chafed birds. Back in September, a whopping month and a half ago, Rovio’s North American General Manager Andrew Stalbow revealed some brand growth stats at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, peeling back the curtain a bit.
As a testament to how… → Read More
If you at all thought that the Angry Birds phenomenon was fizzling out… well, you were wrong. Rovio itself is doing plenty to make the brand “as iconic as Nintendo’s Mario or Mickey Mouse,” with cookbooks and new games and plush toys galore.
But even outside of the company, Angry Birds is still a hit. Over in China, the Shenzhen Technology Co. built a tablet specifically for Angry Birds… → Read More
I caught up with Peter Vesterbacka, Mighty Eagle at Rovio, the creators of the successful Angry Birds franchise, yesterday at the Planet Of The Apps conference in London.
It wasn’t a huge secret, but I certainly didn’t know this: Vesterbacka tells me you will soon be able to buy Angry Birds-themed cookbooks; actual physical books and ebooks for Kindle, Nook and iPad. → Read More
The man glassed the road, watching the long procession slump south across the valley, armed and ragged like a band of crusaders for some dark creed. The rain caught them earlier, somewhere further north, and now they were wet to the bone, all of them, their eyes all downcast save a pair who looked like the guards, janissaries still young and with enough energy to lift their heads to watch the… → Read More
Given that I don’t even really need to write an introduction for it, it goes without saying that Angry Birds is a massive, massive brand. It’s available for everything from iOS to the PS3, and just recently smashed through 350 million cumulative downloads.
The Angry Birds brand isn’t all about the software, though, by any means. In a Fireside Chat with MG this morning, Rovio’s North American… → Read More
Sorry, Rovio. A Chinese theme park located in Changsha, Huna China clearly skipped Trademark Infringement 101 and built a very real, very authentic-looking Angry Birds game. Players pull back a gigantic slingshot loaded with plush Angry Birds and let them fly at balloon pigs sheltered in toy bricks. Chances are you need to make your own bird-flinging scream, though.
Angry Birds is a huge hit… → Read More
As we announced last week, we’ve been busy securing some of the most exciting names in China for our Disrupt Beijing conference this October including Tencent Founder and CEO Pony Ma and Chinese entrepreneur and angel investor Lei Jun. But it wouldn’t be a TechCrunch event without bringing a little of that Silicon Valley magic too.
In selecting people to bring to China we wanted a mix of some… → Read More
Yep. Angry Birds are officially in the public consciousness. It’s part of the world’s culture now. Nothing proves that more than these official Angry Birds mooncakes. There’s simply no escaping the onslaught of flying birds — even though the game is tired and played-out.
The likely tasty pies are part of Rovio’s new merchandise announced for the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. The gaming company… → Read More
For all the hype it has gotten and all the users it has gained, it’s easy to forget that Google+ has only been out for a month and a half. But they’re moving fast to ensure they don’t flop again in the social space. And today brings the biggest “next step” yet: Games.
Gaming has obviously been a huge part of the success of Facebook over the years. It has been so popular, in fact, that one… → Read More
Roku just announced its fourth generation of media streamers and they’re unsurprisingly the best yet. They sport more features, an even smaller physical footprint, and the same Apple TV-killing price points as before.
These new models, the Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, and the Roku 2 XS, have even more media streaming capabilities as the previous models. All the major streaming sources are present… → Read More
Last night at the Webby awards, two little birds told me some interesting news about Angry Birds. Okay, it was actually a Mighty Eagle, founder Peter Vestebacka, and one of his product managers, Ramine Darabiha. The Angry Birds games now have been downloaded 250 million times across all mobile platforms.
So what’s next for Angry Birds? Vestebecka says that they are working on a new game called… → Read More
Despite the fact that Rovio launches a new version of Angry Birds or new episodes in what feels like rapid-fire succession, I’d assume the majority of serious Angry Birds fans blow through newly released levels in a day. No worries though, Rovio has already submitted a new episode of Angry Birds to Apple for approval, so it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be smashing pigs in “Mine… → Read More
Rovio, the Finland-based developer behind the extremely popular Angry Birds franchise, this morning announced on its blog that it has acquired a longtime partner, Finnish animation studio Kombo.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we understand there was a mix of cash and Rovio stock involved. → Read More
“One of the reasons we’ve been angry is that we haven’t been able to bring Angry Birds to the web,” a Rovio developer noted on stage today at Google I/O. Well guess what? Thanks to the Chrome Web Store, it’s finally here.
And that’s not all. Google’s Sundar Pichai also had some more to share about the Chrome Web Store. In the first three months since launch, they’ve seen 17 million app… → Read More
Ah, robots. When they’re not busy planning world domination, they apparently play Angry Birds just like the rest of us. OptoFidelity, a Finnish company that specializes in machine vision and optical measurement technology, in addition to other things I don’t understand, recently produced a physical robot that knows how to kill nasty green pigs.
It most certainly beats the crap out of this… → Read More
A young woman with a bit too much time on her hands built her own realistic Angry Easter Birds using real eggs, paper, and some glue. Why? Because she wanted to. Is that wrong? Let the girl have some fun. → Read More
I ran into Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka again at SXSW 2011 and he was kind enough to give me the update since I saw him last at the Mobile World Congress. Dude is everywhere…and busy. Here’s the short version, but watch the video below to get the info straight from the Mighty Eagle himself! Reached 100 million downloads Angry Birds Rio arrives March 22 Raised 42 million in Series A… → Read More
Ten days ago Google discovered that apparently innocuous Android apps were in fact infested with “DroidDream” malware that included an Android rootkit, with the apparent intent of creating a smartphone botnet. It infected more than a quarter of a million devices before Google intervened. The thriller writer in me immediately began to wonder what would happen if black hats built a wildly popular… → Read More
Rovio, the Finnish entertainment media company who famously operates the Angry Birds franchise, has raised $42 million in Series A funding.
The round was co-led by Accel Partners and Atomico Ventures, the VC firm created by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, who will be joining Rovio’s board. ‘Super angel fund’ Felicis Ventures also participated.
Currently, Angry Birds is played by 40 million… → Read More
Rovio, the Finnish entertainment media company who famously operates the Angry Birds franchise, has raised $42 million in Series A funding.
The round was co-led by Accel Partners and Atomico Ventures, the VC firm created by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, who will be joining Rovio’s board. ‘Super angel fund’ Felicis Ventures also participated.
Currently, Angry Birds is played by 40 million… → Read More
Oh, happy day! Angry Birds is now available for the PC. “But wait,” you say. “There’s no app store on Windows. How will I download it?” Don’t worry: Intel has you covered → Read More
Anyone with kids and a touchscreen device (Android, iPhone, iPad) knows one truth: kids love Angry Birds. My own 6-year-old is obsessed with the game and is constantly draining the batteries on my iPad and iPhone to play the game. So I can totally relate to the inspired genius of Electric Pig’s Mike Cooper, who made his son an Angry Birds birthday cake and documented it in the YouTube video… → Read More
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