Highlights
- Sega has confirmed its acquisition of Rovio, making it the official owner of Angry Birds. This move signals Sega's entry into the mobile gaming market.
- Rovio's Angry Birds game achieved massive success, with over five billion downloads. The franchise has spawned numerous sequels and adaptations, and now it enters a new chapter under Sega's ownership.
- Sega's official announcement, accompanied by an image of Sonic and the Angry Birds, excites fans about the possibilities ahead. Sega aims to make a significant impact in the global mobile gaming market with the Angry Birds franchise.
Sega has confirmed its acquisition of Rovio, making the decades-old studio the official owner of Angry Birds' intellectual property. Sega has been looking to purchase Rovio since April this year, and the company now plans to make a major push into the world of mobile gaming.
In 2009, Rovio released one of the most successful mobile games of all time, Angry Birds. The game is often cited as the first mobile title to hit one billion downloads, and Rovio claims that the game has surpassed five billion total downloads. The game’s simple premise about a group of birds seeking revenge on a gang of mischievous green pigs has spawned countless sequels and spin-offs, plus two big-screen adaptations. After all this success, the Angry Birds franchise will now enter a new chapter in its story.
Sega has officially confirmed its Angry Birds purchase in a recent tweet that’s bound to make any Angry Birds fan excited for the possibilities. In the tweet, Sega mentions that it's thrilled to add Rovio to its family of successful games, adding that exciting adventures are ahead for the newly acquired franchise. Sega also posted an image of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles next to the Angry Birds to whet fan’s appetites. Old-school gamers best know Sega as the publisher behind the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, but the company has also managed to stay relevant thanks to more modern titles such as the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series and the Persona series.
Conversations of Sega’s eventual purchase of Rovio surfaced earlier this year when the Wall Street Journal claimed that the company was looking to acquire the Angry Birds company for one billion dollars. The official deal came down to $775 million dollars with Sega expecting to complete the acquisition by the end of September 2023. Rovio will then become part of the UK-based subsidiary Sega Europe. In a press release from Sega, the company explained its desire to use the Angry Birds franchise to make a significant splash in the global mobile gaming market. Sega could be looking at Nintendo’s success with Mario Kart Tour and Pokemon GO as inspiration.
Sega’s purchase of Rovio is another example of the acquisition-heavy business trend that’s gripped the world of video games. Other examples include Sony’s acquisition of Bungie for $3.6 billion and Microsoft’s incredible purchase of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. With so much money being made in the video game space, gamers should potentially expect more earth-shattering company and franchise purchases to come.
Source: Sega