Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




TECH SPACE
Angry Birds plot global domination
by Staff Writers
Aspen, Colorado (AFP) July 21, 2011


Look out Nokia, Angry Birds are plotting to knock you off your perch as Finland's top company.

Peter Vesterbacka, the chief marketing officer of Angry Birds creator Rovio, outlined the company's global ambitions during an appearance Thursday at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in this Colorado ski resort.

Wearing a bright red sweatshirt with a picture of an Angry Bird on the front, Vesterbacka, whose nickname is "Mighty Eagle," said downloads of the addictive Angry Birds game had hit 300 million.

"That's a good number but our goal is to be the first brand with a billion fans," he said.

Rovio launched Angry Birds as an iPhone application in 2009 and it is now available on a host of other devices, including Android smartphones, the iPad, Sony PlayStation 3 consoles and even through Google's Chrome Web browser.

It currently has 120 million active users on mobile devices.

Angry Birds involves catapulting cartoonish birds into fortresses built by egg-stealing green pigs but Vesterbacka said Rovio is "not a games company."

"What we are building is a next generation entertainment franchise," he said. "I think we're the fastest growing consumer franchise ever."

Vesterbacka said Rovio has acquired an animation studio and begun producing two-minute animated Angry Birds shorts and a full-length movie is two or three years away.

"We're working on new Angry Birds experiences," he said. "We'll expose a bit more of the Angry Birds story."

The Rovio executive said the company's next project is its first book.

"It's the Angry Birds cookbook," he said.

"We'll have three different books coming out this year," Vesterbacka said. "And we're self-publishing because we can."

Asked by a questioner in the audience how much of Angry Bird's success could be attributed to "luck," Vesterbacka appeared to get a little bit, well, angry.

"First of all we are very analytical so Angry Birds was built to be a hit," he said. "We tried to eliminate luck at every stage of the process."

And secondly, "we built 51 games before Angry Birds so it wasn't like we were an overnight success," he said.

Vesterbacka also said Rovio has successfully expanded the Angry Birds franchise from the virtual world to the real world despite being repeatedly advised that it would not work.

"We have been told time after time that we're not supposed to do movies, books, toys," he said. "We sold like eight million toys."

It's not "rocket science," he continued. "If you are strong brand, if you have a strong following of fans you can do anything."

At the end of his appearance, Vesterbacka was asked whether Rovio could one day dethrone mobile phone maker Nokia as Finland's most important company.

"Yes," the "Mighty Eagle" replied, before walking off the stage and tossing a yellow stuffed Angry Bird toy into the crowd.

.


Related Links
Space Technology News - Applications and Research






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








TECH SPACE
Sony backs unique games for PlayStation Network
San Francisco (AFP) July 13, 2011
Sony Computer Entertainment America on Wednesday revealed a plan to invest $20 million in unique games tailored exclusively for PlayStation Network (PSN). The money will be distributed during the coming three years to Sony affiliated studios as well as to independent game makers chosen for backing by a "Pub Fund" the Japanese entertainment colossus established in 2009. The move is part o ... read more


TECH SPACE
Northrop Grumman Honored by IEEE for Development of Lunar Module

Two NASA Probes Tackle New Mission: Studying The Moon

Twin Artemis Probes To Study Moon In 3D

Marshall Center's Bassler Leads NASA Robotic Lander Work

TECH SPACE
NASA says Mars mountain will read like 'a great novel'

Opportunity Tops 20 Miles of Mars Driving

Opportunity Under One Mile from Crater Rim

NASA in Australia for Mars research

TECH SPACE
This Time It's Both Rocket Science AND Surgery

NASA Deputy Administrator Is Keynote Speaker At NewSpace 2011

Russia declares 'era of Soyuz' after shuttle

NASA Begins Commercial Partnership With ULA

TECH SPACE
China launches new data relay satellite

Time Enough for Tiangong

China launches experimental satellite

China to launch an experimental satellite in coming days

TECH SPACE
Atlantis crew leaves historic flag aboard ISS

Obama dials for pizza, gets space station

NASA Selects Nonprofit to Manage Space Station National Lab Research

Astronauts Complete Spacewalk; Cargo Transfers Begin

TECH SPACE
Russia sends observation satellite into space

NASA inks agreement with maker of Atlas V rocket

Russia launches 2 foreign satellites into orbit

ILS Proton Successfully Launches the SES-3 Satellite for SES

TECH SPACE
Distant planet aurorae modeled

Exoplanet Aurora: An Out-of-this-World Sight

Ten new distant planets detected

Microlensing Finds a Rocky Planet

TECH SPACE
Angry Birds plot global domination

'Bloom is off the rose' for 3D: DreamWorks CEO

Apple profit rockets with hot iPad, iPhone sales

Chilean copper-molybdenum mine moves ahead




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement