Rovio Entertainment Limited, previously known as Relude and Rovio Mobile, is a Finnish video
game developer and entertainment company based in Espoo.
The company was founded in 2003 as a mobile game development studio named Relude, and
was officially renamed as Rovio in 2005.
The company is best known for creating the Angry Birds video game franchise.
History
In 2003, three students from Helsinki University of Technology, Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen,
and Kim Dikert participated in a mobile game development competition at the Assembly demo
party sponsored by Nokia and HP.
A victory with a real-time multiplayer game called King of the Cabbage World compelled
the trio to set up their own company, Relude.
King of the Cabbage World was sold to Sumea, and renamed to Mole War, which became one
of the first commercial real-time multiplayer mobile games in the world, the first one being
Samurai Romanesque, a Japanese mobile MMOG released already in January 2001.
In January 2005, Relude received its first round of investment from a business angel,
and the company changed its name to Rovio Mobile.
In December 2009, Rovio released Angry Birds, its 52nd game, a slingshot-puzzle game for
the iPhone, where it reached No. 1 spot in the Apple App Store chart after six months,
and remained charted for months after.
Angry Birds has since been downloaded over 1 billion times, with paid downloads accounting
for more than 25% of total downloads, making it one of the most sold games in the Apple
App Store.
On 9 May 2012, Rovio announced that its mobile game Angry Birds had reached its 1 billionth
download.
In March 2011, Rovio raised $42 million in venture capital funding from Accel Partners,
Atomico and Felicis Ventures.
In July 2011, the company changed its name to Rovio Entertainment Ltd.
In June 2011, the company hired David Maisel to lead their Angry Bird movie production.
By October 2011, Rovio purchased Kombo, a Helsinki-based animation company.
The animation studio was acquired to produce a series of short videos released in 2012.
In March 2012, Rovio acquired Futuremark Game Studios, the game development division of
benchmarking company Futuremark for an undisclosed sum.
In July 2012, Rovio announced a distribution partnership with Activision to bring the first
three Angry Birds titles to video game consoles and handhelds, in a collection named Angry
Birds Trilogy.
The title was released on September 25, 2012.
On November 8, 2012, Rovio released Angry Birds Star Wars, an iteration of its popular
game licensed from the Star Wars original trilogy, for mobile devices and PC.
Rovio partnered with Activision again to port the title to video game consoles and handhelds,
with it being released on those platforms on October 29, 2013.
A sequel, Angry Birds Star Wars II, based on the Star Wars prequel trilogy, was released
on September 18, 2013.
In March 2013, Rovio launched its muliplatform ToonsTV channel starting with Angry Birds
Toons.
As of 2013, Rovio became a videogame publisher and is publishing third party games through
their Rovio Stars program.
In January 2014, it was revealed that their flagship series, Angry Birds, "leaked data"
to third-party companies, perhaps even surveillance agencies like the NSA.
In retaliation, anti-NSA hackers defaced Rovio's website.
As of May 2014, Rovio releases its non-Angry Birds titles under a new name, Rovio LVL11.
The first game published under this title is Retry and the second is Selfie Slam.
As of June 2014, Rovio considers themselves an entertainment and education company, not
a mobile game company.
This is reinforced by Rovio's merchandise and licensing business accounting for about
half of its annual revenue of $216 million in 2013.
In August 2014, Rovio announced that Mikael Hed will step down as CEO in January 2015
in favor of Pekka Rantala.
Hed will remain on Rovio's board and will be the chairman of Rovio Animation.
In October 2014, Mikael Hed announced that there would be 130 job losses at the company,
after net profits halved in 2013.
Divisions ToonsTV
ToonsTV is a multiplatform channel owned by Rovio Entertainment.
It is available via Rovio apps, video-on-demand providers, smart TVs and connected devices.
As of July 2014, it was viewed more than three billion times.
On March 16, 2013, ToonsTV was launched by Rovio starting with Angry Birds Toons.
It was followed by a Bad Piggies-based animated series Piggy Tales, premiering on April 11,
2014.
The second season of Angry Birds Toons will debuted on October 19, 2014, and an animated
series based on Angry Birds Stella is scheduled to be released on November 1, 2014.
ToonsTV also streams a third-party content, including Graphic IndiaStan Lee's Chakra:
The Invincible series, at least four shows from Xilam Animation, National Geographic
Kids’ Amazing Animals, Jim Henson's classic show Fraggle Rock and works from Hasbro Studios.
Rovio Stars As of 2013, Rovio became a video game publisher
and is publishing third party games through their Rovio Stars program.
The Rovio Stars games are Tiny Thief, Juice Cubes, and Plunder Pirates.
Sky Punks is an upcoming game to be published by Rovio Stars.
Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage was a game published by Rovio Stars, but it is no longer published
by mutual agreement with Nitrome in April 2014.
Word Monsters was also a game published by Rovio Stars, but as of August 18, 2014, it
is no longer published by them and is published by Raketspel.
It was not publically released why Rovio is no longer publishing it.
Rovio LVL11 Rovio releases non-Angry Birds experimental
games under their Rovio LVL11 arm.
The Rovio LVL11 games are Retry and Selfie Slam.
Retry is a clone of Flappy Bird with additional features and was released worldwide in October
2014.
In Selfie Slam the player takes a selfie and adds limbs to make an avatar, then uses the
avatar to play a selection of mini-games, it soft launched in September 2014.
Games Developed by Rovio Entertainment
Developed by Rovio LVL11 Published by Rovio Stars
No longer published by Rovio Stars Developed by Rovio Mobile
Bounce Evolution - N900 Bounce Tales - N-Gage
Bounce Touch - N-Gage Bounce Boing Voyage - N-Gage
Burger Rush - J2ME Burnout - J2ME
Collapse Chaos - J2ME Cyber Blood - J2ME
Darkest Fear - iOS, J2ME Darkest Fear 2 - J2ME
Darkest Fear 3 - J2ME Desert Sniper - J2ME
Dragon & Jade - J2ME Formula GP Racing - J2ME
Gem Drop - J2ME Marine Sniper - J2ME
Mole War - J2ME Need for Speed: Carbon - J2ME
Paid to Kill - J2ME Paper Planes - J2ME
Patron Angel - J2ME Playman Winter Games - J2ME
Shopping Madness - J2ME Space Impact: Meteor Shield - N97, J2ME
Star Marine - J2ME Sumea Ski Jump - J2ME
Swat Elite Troops - J2ME US Marine Corps Scout Sniper - J2ME
Totomi - iOS, Flash, J2ME War Diary Burma - J2ME
War Diary Torpedo - J2ME Wolfmoon - J2ME
X-Factor 2008 - J2ME References
External links
Official website