Report: Rovio mulling Hong Kong IPO in 2013

You'll 'be right back'?

@Jameseh
As a ghost, duh.

It'll be a beautiful train wreck. My popcorn is ready for a few months now.

@Jameseh
In 3-D!

@HissingNewt
Yeah, especially after Zynga's total flop on the IPO just recently. Rovio is riding on one game, and the prospect that it's the "most downloaded game ever." Of course, they like to ignore that the actual PURCHASE rate is at 2%.

@880Cloud088

Rovio thinks Angry Birds is the biggest thing since the NES. Well I hate to burst their bubble, but gaming trends fluctuates regularly. What was popular 15 years ago might not be around today (platformers and Japanese RPG's, for example).

Angry Birds may be big now, but I highly doubt it will ever reach the status of Mario, Halo, GTA, Zelda, Sonic, etc. Every Angry Birds game plays the game, there's no uniqueness between each game.

@tendoboy1984
Platformers and JRPGs are still around...

@pluupy
And you'll try to deny they are dying? Name as many platformers that came out this year. Rayman Origins was the ONLY big name one. Or how many big JRPG franchises are around anymore? Final Fantasy, which is constantly losing credibility, Shin Megami Tensei, the rare Tales game, and a trickle of other releases.

Compare that to 15 years ago, where platformers were everywhere, and good JRPGs were coming out of every oriffice. I don't like that these two genres are dying out, but I won't deny it's happening.

@Jennacide
Just because they're dying in the West doesn't mean they're dying in Japan. In truth, if's once they die in Japan then it's over.

@CaptainProtonX The stock market isn't rational. News at 11.

@Faceless Troll

And what about news at 4, 5, 5:30, 6 and 10?

@CaptainProtonX The latest in celebrity gossip.

@CaptainProtonX

Put it in front of a kid or non gamer. I'd bet that angry birds is probably second only to "Mario" in terms of ... what's the phrase? ... gaming brand awareness? It's extremely popular even if we don't like it. Personally, I think it's meh.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell
But here's the catch, Mario got that way from being multiple games and actually SELLING units. Angry Birds is known well, sure. But the purchase rate has been proven to be dramatically low. How many people on this site actually bought a copy of it? I have it on my Android phone and in Chrome, never had to pay a dime for it.

@(Unverified) It's just because they're (or that Vesterbacka something guy at least) pretentious douches that think they are geniuses, when all they did was rip off some game that was most probably already a rip-off, and got lucky.

Unless they actually create a new IP (doesn't even have to be original), they are doomed.

@WeRequireMOARMinerals

Everything this guy said.

@(Unverified) Actually, this IS destroying what's good about gaming and replacing with casual games. Indie guys make casual indie game. The casual people (who don't normally play big titles or home consoles and just slap their thumbs on a smart phone) play it. The casual crowd is very large. Game becomes astronomically popular with the casual crowd. Game brings in lots of money. Big game developers notice this. They want some of that. Big developer starts targeting the bigger casual market by making a bunch of shovel ware, casual and iOS games. No Torchlight 2. They start seeing the sales grow big, and notice that their making big bucks off these casual games. Sequel planned for iOS game. Still no Torchlight 2. Casual market migrates to the next overhyped casual game. Sequel gets released. Doesn't make enough sales. Developer goes bankrupt. No more developer.

...or I've just over-analyzed it...I need to stop thinking in the early hours of the morning. But yeah, also what the guy above said about Rovio being pretentious douches.

@Churrotastic

So basically you think that somehow you and your niche hc gaming group deserve to have the devs cater to your tastes rather than tastes of the bigger group consisting of millions of people who like games such as angry birds?

@(Unverified)
The developers don't give up on the gamer crowd. Because gamers are persistent with games. Once the casual crowd migrates to the "next big thing", the companies cater to gamers once more.

@(Unverified)
You'd rather only play poorly designed shite shovelware like angry birds forever more? Stop debating just to be contrary. Rovio will fade into obscurity soon enough, you can shed a tear for them then.

@(Unverified) I don't get it either.

When you put it in a way that the devs abandon the audience that made them successful in the first place for the large casual crowd who are migratory by nature and will eventually just move on to the next popular gimmick, then yes that is what I think.