christopherecclestones: How Angry Birds Conquered Casual Gaming

How Angry Birds Conquered Casual Gaming

October 20, 2011 by Christina Warren

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For nearly two years, the casual game market has belonged to Angry Birds. The megahit app has been downloaded over 400 million times and boasts 30 million daily active users.

For Rovio, the developers behind the juggernaut, the success of Angry Birds has led to movie deals, increased funding and rumors of IPO plans.

Mashable interviewed Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio, to talk about the success of Angry Birds, the state of developing for multiple platforms and Rovio?s future beyond defeating the pigs.

Q&A with Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio

The success of Angry Birds is truly breathtaking. How has its success changed your approach to developing not only the game itself, but also running the company?

The company is much larger than it used to be. We currently have 160 people compared to 20 a year ago, and we?re expanding rapidly in publishing, licensing and animation. As the company has grown, running it has become more complicated. But we haven?t changed our basic focus: excellence in everything we do.

Angry Birds is now a franchise ? it has toys, apparel, Halloween costumes, lunchboxes, a movie is in the works. What is the challenge of balancing these aspects with also continuing to focus on game development?

We don?t really see these aspects as competing. The expansion into franchising is a natural extension of people?s enthusiasm for Angry Birds. The game is still very close to the core of our brand, but we see Angry Birds already as a broader entertainment platform.

Are games still at the heart of Rovio?s mission, or have your ambitions as a company expanded because of success and opportunities?

Game development will continue to be an important part of the company, but for more than a year, we have actively driven the strategy of becoming an entertainment media company. Angry Birds is our biggest brand, but will definitely not remain our only one.

After launching successfully on the iPhone and iPad, you ported Angry Birds to other platforms, including Android, webOS, PlayStation, etc. What platform is your favorite? Do you still design for one OS and then port to others or do you take a more agnostic approach?

We love all platforms! New web technologies are of course particularly interesting, as they allow the same experience on multiple platforms. We are still developing for a number of platforms simultaneously, when necessary ? native experience is still often the best, and the best possible user experience is what drives our development.

Angry Birds was designed as a touch game, yet now it exists on Macs, the web browser and on video game consoles. How difficult has it been to translate the experience from touch to an object like a mouse or game controller?

We have to make some adjustments, but the general gameplay has stayed the same. We think the game experience translates very well across different platforms and controllers. Judging on just game content alone, we have a very impressive game with a lot of longevity and replay value. Touch controls are just another flavor of the Angry Birds experience.

You introduced in-app purchase with the Mighty Eagle to what looks like great success. Do you see adding in more options for in-app purchase to your titles in the future?

It?s definitely something that we?re looking into. The key here is not providing just content purchases, but exceptional experiences. Consider the Mighty Eagle: You get a new character, a game aid, new gameplay goals and achievements ? Mighty Eagle is not just another in-app purchase, but a real extension of the game.

The mobile games space is very different than it was in 2003 ? what advice would you offer to startups who are entering the mobile gaming space today?

The important thing is to focus on quality and the fans. If you make a great product that people enjoy, the downloads will follow naturally. You also need to plan for the future. With Angry Birds, we?re not providing just an app. We?re providing a service with regular content updates, lots of engaging content through our fan community, and so on.

What comes after Angry Birds? Are you going to develop other game franchisees, and if so, what is your target platform?

Angry Birds is of course our biggest focus, and we have many fantastic things in the pipeline. Regarding other gaming franchises, the short answer is ?yes.? We have a number of development projects on the drawing board, and we also have a great opportunity to use our reach as a publisher to take other developers? property to the market.

View As Slideshow ?

1. Smartphone Apps

Where the revolution began: Angry Birds first released the game onto Apple's iOS in December 2009.

2. Toys

3. Television

4. Google Chrome

5. Facebook

6. PSP

7. Board Game

8. Cookbook

9. Holiday Themes

With all its popularity, Angry Birds certainly has cause to celebrate. Its users do too with holiday-themed game levels like Valentine's Day, Halloween and Easter.