Joystiq

Rovio wants Angry Birds Space on 'all the screens,' Vita version up to Sony

Jordan Mallory — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:35:00 EST

Rovio's plans for porting Angry Birds Space are just as ambitious as they were with the original, according to chief marketing officer/Mighty Eagle Peter Vesterbacka. "With all our games, we're going for all the screens: Smartphones, tablets, TVs, the web, so we really want to bring Space to all the screens as well," Vesterbacka told us during this week's SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, TX. "As always, we have limited resources, so we can only do iOS, Android, PC and Mac for the launch, but the other platforms will follow shortly after."

Vesterbacka also mentioned that Rovio's back catalog of bird/slingshot simulators are still coming to the 3DS, and that potential Vita versions are in Sony's court: "We'll have our games on the 3DS pretty soon. The Vita we haven't decided what to do about yet, but of course we want to be on all the screens, so let's see how the Vita does in the market. And of course, always when working with these console guys it's not that we can decide, it's really if Sony wants to have Angry Birds on Vita. It's more up to them than to us."

Rovio wants Angry Birds Space on 'all the screens,' Vita version up to Sony originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Angry Birds studio head claims $1.2B valuation too low, 'maybe' going public next year

Ben Gilbert — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:45:00 EST

Angry Birds is way, way popular -- sure -- but it is so popular as to elevate its progenitor's valuation beyond that of its already sky-high $1.2 billion estimate? CEO Peter Vesterbacka seems to think so, telling Bloomberg, "We're happy with our valuation but we think it's probably a bit north of that," referring to the aforementioned insanely high number.

Beyond astronomical sales of the hit fowl flinger, Vesterbacka's company has been pulling in additional revenue from merchandising. Millions of dollars every month, in fact, via the company's website -- apparently just the stuffed toys are selling "a million units a month," which doesn't account for Halloween costumes, movie licensing, clothing, and various other tchochkes. "We are very, very profitable. We're not a publicly traded company yet we can fund our own growth," Vesterbacka boasts in the interview, all the while attempting to bolster his company's value when it does go public. He doesn't offer an exact date, but says, "maybe a year from now" Rovio will be making its public stock offer.

When we last asked market analysts back in March how Rovio would fare an IPO, we were answered with reservation. And despite another seven months of earnings under the company's belt, we'd wager Vesterbacka's valuation estimates are a bit more lofty than the reality of things. But hey, we're not running any multimillion dollar corporations.

Angry Birds studio head claims $1.2B valuation too low, 'maybe' going public next year originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rovio's Vesterbacka defends mobile games, calls out Nintendo's '$49 pieces of plastic'

Ben Gilbert — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:55:00 EST

"A lot of people in the games industry, they think the 'real' games are on consoles. You're only a 'real' games company if you do a big budget game. But we don't have that inferiority complex," Rovio head Peter Vesterbacka told MCV in a recent interview. Vesterbacka was defending against Nintendo's latest criticisms of the mobile market -- both Nintendo of Japan head Satoru Iwata and Nintendo of America head Reggie Fils-Aime have argued that low-priced smartphone apps are degrading the value of games.

"If I was trying to sell a $49 piece of plastic to people then yes, I'd be worried too," Vesterbacka added, with a tinge of vitriol, alluding to the standard retail price of a Wii game disc. "But I think it's a good sign that people are concerned -- because from my point of view we're doing something right." Rovio's Angry Birds and its spin-offs are just a $1 each for iPhone and are offered as free, ad-supported apps on the Android Market.

Still, the company has plans for more console development, having already released Angry Birds as a PlayStation Mini, with additional console ports in the pipeline -- even Nintendo's 3DS is getting an Angry Birds port. "Games consoles for us are just like launching on a new smartphone platform," Vesterbacka said nonchalantly. After all, he's probably more concerned with the movie tie-in, the planned US IPO, and, uh, having an Angry Bird etched into the Moon.

Okay, that last one probably isn't happening. Yet.

Rovio's Vesterbacka defends mobile games, calls out Nintendo's '$49 pieces of plastic' originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Angry Birds downloads soar past 100 million across all platforms

Ben Gilbert — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EST

During a panel at this past weekend's South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Rovio exec Peter Vesterbacka told attendees that the company's bird-flinging pig terrorizer, Angry Birds, has been downloaded over 100 million times. As Vesterbacka revealed during GDC, more than 30 million of those downloads have been of the game's freemium Android version, and both the lite and paid versions topped 2010's iOS charts. Since its release on PSN in January, Angry Birds has also dominated PlayStation Minis sales. So many scared pigs!

During his presentation, Vesterbacka went on to make a somewhat dubious claim, however, saying, "Tablets are killing consoles. Four generations of new tablets come before a new console, if one ever comes." While hardware iteration of tablets has certainly been speedier than that of consoles, we don't see tablets "killing" the home console market anytime soon. Nokia interim VP of services Tero Ojanpera apparently agrees with us, as he countered Vesterbacka by arguing that, despite the iPad 2's ability to output 1080p video, most folks won't ever plug their tablet devices into their televisions.

Not to mention, Vesterbacka and company recently hired Remedy co-founder Petri Järvilehto to spearhead Angry Birds expansion to consoles. "We want to make Angry Birds a long-lasting global gaming franchise, and we see the console platforms as a way of delivering an even more entertaining, powerful and involving experience," Rovio CEO Mikael Hed said last month in an announcement of the company's intention "to take the Angry Birds success story to current and emerging console platforms."

Angry Birds downloads soar past 100 million across all platforms originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Angry Birds passes 30 million downloads on Android

JC Fletcher — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:00:00 EST

Turns out people like Angry Birds -- and free things. The freemium Android release of Rovio Mobile's wing-slinging hit has been downloaded over 30 million times, according to Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka, who is speaking at GDC as part of a Google-run Android monetization panel.

He also provided evidence that people continue playing Angry Birds after that initial download. 80 percent of Android users, Vesterbacka said, downloaded subsequent updates, indicating that they've retained interest in the game. This is good news for Rovio, but bad news for those birds -- sustained anger isn't good for you.

Angry Birds passes 30 million downloads on Android originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Overheard@GDC: Credit where credit's due

Randy Nelson — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:00:00 EST

"What physics engine did you use for Angry Birds?" --Man
"Box2d" --Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio
"Would you be willing to credit it?" --Man
"Yes" --Vesterbacka
"I'm the creator of Box2d." --Erin Catto, creator of Box2d

Following this exchange -- which took place during Rovio's panel on its multi-million-dollar franchise -- a smiling, caught-off-guard Vesterbacka said that the company would credit Box2d as the physics engine it uses if Catto would see him after the Q&A session.

[Image: The Clock Blog]

Overheard@GDC: Credit where credit's due originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Super Meat Boy postmortem, Angry Birds and Zynga talks announced for GDC 2011

Ben Gilbert — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:15:00 EST

In case you didn't know, it's the 25th anniversary of the Game Developers Conference this year, and that means a load of extra special presentations. Beyond the head of Nintendo keynoting, the laundry list of legendary developers giving "classic" postmortems, and various announcements, it was revealed today that Super Meat Boy devs Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes ("Team Meat") will be giving a postmortem of their own. And hey, we think they're pretty extra special.

Additionally, Zynga VP of product development Mark Skaggs will be discussing his company's evolution, framed around the release of FarmVille and the push towards CityVille over the last year -- we'd suggest fledgling Facebook millionaires not be late. And finally, rounding out today's announcement is news of an Angry Birds talk from Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka (self-claimed "Head Eagle" at the studio). We'll be on hand at GDC bringing you all the meaty, free-to-play, bird-flinging news as it breaks.

Super Meat Boy postmortem, Angry Birds and Zynga talks announced for GDC 2011 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Angry Birds confirmed as coming to XBLA, PSN, WiiWare before a sequel

Ben Gilbert — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST

Given the ESRB's rating of Angry Birds on WiiWare way back in August, and the subsequent announcement of miniaturizing the game on PSP, we weren't shocked to hear Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka confirm "PSN, Wii, and Xbox" versions of the enormously popular game are on the way. Pocket Gamer reports that Vesterbacka delivered the news during a speech at the first ever Social Gaming Summit in London this week, where he said the new versions would mark the beginning of the future for the Angry Birds IP.

It also looks like we'll see the game released digitally on consoles before a proper sequel comes out, as Vesterbacka characterizes the XBLA/PSN/WiiWare ports as just "for starters." Soon after, he hinted that we could see a "surprise" twist on the game, telling the timeless tale of Angry Birds from the perspective of the lowly pigs. The gaming equivalent of "A Tale of Two Cities," but, ya know, with pigs and birds. Obviously.

Angry Birds confirmed as coming to XBLA, PSN, WiiWare before a sequel originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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