Rovio (Angry Birds) layoffs

http://rovio.fi/en/news/press-releases/587/rovio-employee-negotiations-concluded

110 people, or 14% of their workforce.

Rovio will consolidate all its Finland operations in Espoo, resulting in discontinuing the Tampere studio operations under Rovio.

Holy crap, they were even bigger than I thought. I felt like they were smart to snap up promising games that never fulfilled their potential, snazz them up, and release within their marketing network. But none of those games caught on like Angry Birds. It’s almost like Angry Birds was a fluke or something! (If it was, it was a brilliantly designed (graphically speaking) fluke, let’s be honest.)

Do people browse mobile platforms by publisher? Oh, I liked AB, wonder what else Rovio has… Is that a thing?

Seems to me people browse the ‘top’ lists or follow word of mouth.

Anyway, Rovio made bank on AB and did everything in their power to turn that into a franchise that went beyond mobile games, and with moderate success at that.

But it does not really surprise me that they overextended on the promise of that franchise.

Sharelo hits at the fundamental issue, most people are blithely playing games with only the most tenuous connection to who made them. I hardly even do that, and I have to go outside of the store to do so. People search for Angry Birds, not Rovio, and only by coincidence are other games of theirs listed there. For me I follow Shenandoah Studios and Playdek, but even I only know what stuff of theirs is out by using sites like Pocket Tactics. Your average mobile player? Probably has no idea. Unless they have the cash and inclination to advertise through traditional means (like Clash of Clans and Angry Birds have done) then it’s almost irrelevant if one of your games is a hit to whether your next will.

Oh man, raise a good point and others get credited for it!

Geez, QT3 can be a hard place to crack. :D

It’s one of the perks you get at 4,000 posts: you become background noise ;)

Now excuse me while I look up whatever Black Isle is working on these days. Hey, wait a minute …

What? I have no idea what you are talking about. See my post gave you credit and everything… Yup. Definitely always had you there, and not Nightgaunt. ;)

lol45

Took me a minute, but I think sharaleo is referring to you misspelling his name, CraigM.

I totally do. If I like a game by a dev, I’m always very interested to see what else they have done.

Noodlecake Studio’s is about the only mobile publisher I check up on every now and again. Oh and the Cory Trese

Angry Birds should have stuck small pumping out Angry Birds titles and used the cash to support side projects, like Arcen Games. Listen to me, all knowledgeable after the fact :)

Rovio just lost nearly half its market cap this morning on a weak earnings forecast. Which is a bit awkward given that it IPOed in September.

Now we just await the Sonic and Angry Birds crossover, heh. Seriously though, depending on the age demographic in question, Angry Birds is probably more recognizable than Sonic for some age groups.