This week had its up and downs for Rovio, the Finnish company that makes Angry Birds mobile games. On the plus side the voice cast for the CGI Angry Birds movie was announced, with Jason Sudeikis as Red, Josh Gad as Chuck the yellow bird. Danny McBride as Bomb, Bill Hader as the pig, Maya Rudolph as Matilda and Peter Dinklage as The Mighty Eagle, of course. The film is set for release in May 2016.
But will anyone be watching by then? The game company, which expanded rapidly as its addictive games became the crack of the iPhone, has seen its popularity decline and just announcedthey will have to cut 130 jobs. :
CEO Mikael Hed said in a statement on Thursday that Rovio expects to cut up to 130 jobs in Finland, as the company had been building its team on assumptions of “faster growth than has materialized.” The Espoo, Finland-based company currently has about 800 employees.
Privately owned Rovio has grown by double-digit numbers following the 2009 launch of Angry Birds and the wide-ranging merchandise that followed.
An earlier report on Mashable stated that profits had fallen 53% in 2013.
The crashing, tinkling and piggy laughter of the Angry Birds game has been the background of many a night at home or subway ride for years. In 2011 Angry Birds costumes were the most popular for Halloween, there were comics, cookbooks, plush toys and everything else. But after a while even the most addictive game gets a little tired—especially after two billion downloads.
The tale is a pretty familiar one in the world of viral mobile games. Zynga was king of the world with Farmville and then we all decided that i was a waste of time to buy rutabegas and moved on to Candy Crush Saga. And Candy Crush Saga maker King Digital went public earlier in the year only to see their stock fall to half their IPO, as the game slid down Apple’s charts.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still addicted to Bubble Witch Saga 2, and gird up every Wednesday for my clan war in Clash of the Clans, but…none of these things are meant to last.
Oh, bite your tongue. I’m still addicted to Gardens of Time via Facebook – what was that, the best social game of 2011 or something? Still in beta, by the way, even though it’s changed ownership…
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