Rovio Entertainment
 | |
 | |
Formerly |
|
|---|---|
Type | Public |
| Traded as | Nasdaq Helsinki: ROVIO |
| ISIN | FI4000266804 |
| Industry | Video game industry |
| Founded | 10 November 2003 (2003-11-10) in Helsinki, Finland |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | Espoo , Finland |
Number of locations | 2 studios[1] (2017) |
Key people |
|
| Products | Angry Birds series |
| Revenue |  €297.158 million[1] (2017) |
Operating income | €31.378 million[1] (2017) |
Net income | €20.597 million[1] (2017) |
| Total assets | €190.166 million[1] (2017) |
| Total equity | €140.386 million[1] (2017) |
| Owner | Trema (37%)[2] |
Number of employees |  391[1] (2017) |
| Subsidiaries | PlayRaven |
| Website | rovio.com |
Rovio Entertainment Oyj (formerly Relude Oy and Rovio Mobile Oy) is a Finnish video game developer based in Espoo. Founded in 2003 by Helsinki University of Technology students Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen and Kim Dikert, the company is best known for the Angry Birds franchise.
Contents
1 History
2 Games developed
2.1 2003–2009
2.2 2009–present
3 Television series
4 Feature films
5 References
6 External links
History
In 2003, three students from the 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 Hewlett-Packard. A victory with a multiplayer game called King of the Cabbage World led 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 January 2005, Relude received its first round of investment from a business angel, and the company changed its name to Rovio Mobile, where "rovio" translates from Finnish as "pyre".[3]
In 2009, Mikael Hed became the CEO. In December 2009, Rovio released Angry Birds, its 52nd game, a puzzle game where a bird is flung at pigs using a slingshot for the iPhone; it reached No. 1 spot in the Apple App Store paid apps chart after six months, and remained charted for months after.[3]
In March 2011, Rovio raised $42 million in venture capital funding from Accel Partners, Atomico and Felicis Ventures.[4] In July 2011, the company changed its name to Rovio Entertainment.[5] In June 2011, the company hired David Maisel to lead their Angry Birds movie production.[6] By October 2011, Rovio purchased Kombo, a Helsinki-based animation company.[7] The animation studio was acquired to produce a series of short videos released in 2012.[8] In March 2012, Rovio acquired Futuremark Game Studios, the game development division of benchmarking company Futuremark, for an undisclosed sum.[9]
In May 2012, Rovio announced that its game series Angry Birds had reached its one billionth download. 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. It was released in September 2012. In November 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 in October 2013. A sequel, Angry Birds Star Wars II, based on the Star Wars prequel trilogy, was released in September 2013.
In March 2013, Rovio launched its multi-platform ToonsTV channel starting with Angry Birds Toons.[10] As of 2013, Rovio became a video game publisher and is publishing third party games through its Rovio Stars program.[11]
In January 2014, Rovio announced that its game series Angry Birds had reached its two billionth download.[12] In addition, it was revealed that their flagship series, Angry Birds, "leaked data" to third-party companies, possibly to surveillance agencies like the NSA.[13] In retaliation, anti-NSA hackers defaced Rovio's website.[14]
In May 2014, Rovio launched a new publishing arm, Rovio LVL11, to release experimental games.[15] The first game published under Rovio LVL11 is Retry[16] and the second is Selfie Slam.[17] As of June 2014, Rovio considers themselves an entertainment company, not just a game company. This is reinforced by Rovio's merchandise and licensing business accounting for about half of their annual revenue of $216 million in 2013.[18]
Kati Levoranta, CEO of Rovio, in 2018
In August 2014, Rovio announced that Mikael Hed would step down as CEO in January 2015 in favour of Pekka Rantala.[19] Hed remained on Rovio's board and became the chairman of Rovio Animation. In December 2014, Rovio laid off 110 employees after net profits halved in 2013 due to its recent games, Angry Birds Epic and Go!, which have not been that successful as past games.[20] After this move, Rovio closed its Tampere studio, moving their operations to its Espoo location. At the end of 2014, Rovio suffered from a 73% decrease in profit, earning only €10 million. Pekka Rantala stated that the decrease is due to the poor sales of the licensed merchandise and the by-products of Angry Birds. He also noted that "the company are unsatisfied over the result of our licensing business".[21] In August 2015, Rovio laid off 260 employees worldwide after Angry Birds toy and merchandise revenue fell by 43% during 2014.[22] In December 2015, Rantala announced that he would step down as the CEO and would be succeeded by Kati Levoranta, former chief legal officer of Rovio, in January 2016.[23]
In March 2016, Rovio soft launched Battle Bay to select Asian Pacific and European countries, this is Rovio's first MOBA five-on-five player vs. player game. The game was released worldwide for Android and iOS in May 2017.
On 16 January 2017, Rovio opened its new game studio in London to focus on massively multiplayer online games.[24] On 15 February 2017, Rovio announced that it will be cutting at least 35 jobs as it restructures the animation division.[25] In March 2017, Kaiken Entertainment, founded by former Rovio CEO Mikael Hed, acquired Rovio's animation division.[26] In March 2017, Rovio reported that it has returned to profitability with a gross revenue of US$201 million with the success of the Angry Birds Movie and its recent video games.[27]
In June 2017, Kaj Hed resigned as chairman of Rovio and Mika Ihamuotila succeeded him as new chairman.[28]
On 5 September 2017, Rovio announced its intention to become a publicly-traded company.[29] In October 2017, Rovio shares were sold at NASDAQ Helsinki[30] and the company was valued at $1 billion.[31]
On 2 March 2018, Rovio announced the closure of its London studio after disappointing results.[32]
On 14 November 2018, Rovio announced that it appointed the former Gameloft executive Alexandre Pelletier-Normand as executive vice president of its game business unit. He will start his role on January 2, 2019.[33] On 30 November 2018, Rovio announced that they had fully acquired PlayRaven, the developer known for making strategy games such as Eve: War of Acension.[34]
Games developed
2003–2009
Bounce Boing Voyage - N-Gage (2008)
Bounce Evolution - Nokia N900 (2009)
Bounce Tales - Java ME (2008)
Bounce Touch - Symbian^1 (2008)
Burger Rush - Java ME (2008)
Burnout - Java ME (2007)
Collapse Chaos - Java ME (2008)
Cyber Blood - Java ME (2006)
Darkest Fear - Java ME (2005), iOS (2009)
Darkest Fear 2: Grim Oak - Java ME (2006)
Darkest Fear 3: Nightmare - Java ME (2006)
Desert Sniper - Java ME (2006)
Dragon & Jade - Java ME (2007)
Formula GP Racing - Java ME (2005)
Gem Drop Deluxe - Java ME (2008)
Marine Sniper - Java ME (2007)
Mole War - Java ME (2004)
Need for Speed: Carbon - Java ME (2006)
Paid to Kill - Java ME (2004)
Paper Planes - Java ME (2008)
Patron Angel - Java ME (2007)
Playman Winter Games - Java ME (2005)
Shopping Madness - Java ME (2007)
Space Impact: Meteor Shield - Nokia N97 (2010)
Star Marine - Java ME (2007)
Sumea Ski Jump - Java ME (2007)
SWAT Elite Troops - Java ME (2008)
Totomi - iOS, Flash, Java ME (2008)
US Marine Corps Scout Sniper - Java ME (2006)
War Diary: Burma - Java ME (2005)
War Diary: Crusader - Java ME (2005)
War Diary: Torpedo - Java ME (2005)
Wolf Moon - Java ME (2006)
X Factor 2008 - Java ME (2008)
2009–present
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Android | iOS | PC | WP | ||
| 2009 | Angry Birds | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2010 | Angry Birds Seasons | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2011 | Angry Birds Rio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2012 | Angry Birds Space | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Amazing Alex | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Bad Piggies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Angry Birds Star Wars | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2013 | The Croods | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Angry Birds Friends | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
Angry Birds Star Wars II | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Angry Birds Go! | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2014 | Angry Birds Epic | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Angry Birds Transformers | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
Angry Birds Stella | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2015 | Angry Birds POP! | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Angry Birds 2 | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
Nibblers | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
Love Rocks Starring Shakira | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
Angry Birds Fight! | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| 2016 | Angry Birds Action! | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Angry Birds Blast! | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| 2017 | Battle Bay | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Angry Birds Evolution | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
Angry Birds Match | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
Television series
Angry Birds Toons (2013–2016)
Piggy Tales (2014–present)
Angry Birds Stella (2014–2016)
Angry Birds Blues (2017)
Angry Birds BirLd Cup (2018)
Angry Birds Zero Gravity (2018)
Angry Birds on The Run (2018)
Feature films
The Angry Birds Movie (2016)
The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019)
References
^ abcdefg https://assets-production.rovio.com/s3fs-public/rovio_annual_report_2017.pdf
^ "Subscribe to read". Financial Times. Retrieved 19 July 2018..mw-parser-output cite.citationfont-style:inherit.mw-parser-output qquotes:"""""""'""'".mw-parser-output code.cs1-codecolor:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registrationcolor:#555.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration spanborder-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-errordisplay:none;font-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-errorfont-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-formatfont-size:95%.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-leftpadding-left:0.2em.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-rightpadding-right:0.2em
^ ab "In the land of Angry Birds: Rovio reveals its global entertainment ambitions (photo gallery)". venturebeat.com. 24 November 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ Thorsen, Tor (11 March 2011). "Angry Birds dev raises $42 million". gamespot.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ Wingfield, Nick (10 August 2011). "'Angry Birds' Spreads Wings". Retrieved 19 July 2018 – via www.wsj.com.
^ "Angry Birds hires movie producer for 'future films' - BBC Newsbeat". bbc.co.uk. 7 May 2011. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Rovio Acquires Finnish Animation Studio Kombo For Cash and Stock". adweek.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ Whitworth, Dan (20 October 2011). "Angry Birds confirm work on a film version is underway - BBC Newsbeat". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "'Angry Birds' creator Rovio acquires Futuremark Games Studio". theverge.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Rovio Announces Second Season of 'Angry Birds Toons' Series". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Angry Birds Maker Rovio Will Now Publish And Market Select Third-Party Games". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Angry Birds series pecks up 2 billion downloads". engadget.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ Ball, James (28 January 2014). "Angry Birds and 'leaky' phone apps targeted by NSA and GCHQ for user data". the Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Hackers deface Angry Birds website". 19 July 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2018 – via www.bbc.com.
^ "Rovio's new publishing arm LVL11 is a 'magical place' for experimental games". polygon.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Angry Birds developers reveal Flappy Bird-inspired mobile game Retry". polygon.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Selfie Slam is a collection of silly mini-games from Rovio that's in soft launch for iPad and iPhone". pocketgamer.co.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ Rossi, Juhana (18 June 2014). "Mighty Eagle: Angry Birds Maker Not a Games Company". wsj.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ Isidore, Chris. "Struggling Angry Birds maker dumping CEO". cnn.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Angry Birds maker Rovio reduces layoffs to 110 and will close a studio". venturebeat.com. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Angry Birds dev profits falling off sharply - but not for the reason you think - VG247". vg247.com. 19 March 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Angry Birds developer Rovio to lay off 260 staff". eurogamer.net. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Rovio's CEO steps down after just over a year on the job". theverge.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ Editorial, Reuters. "Angry Birds maker Rovio opens new games studio in London". reuters.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ Verbergt, Matthias (15 February 2017). "'Angry Birds' Owner Rovio to Cut Jobs". Retrieved 19 July 2018 – via www.wsj.com.
^ Rizzo, Carita; Rizzo, Carita (7 March 2017). "Rovio Founder Launches Kaiken Entertainment, Takes Over Rovio's TV Animation, Publishing".
^ Rosendahl, Jussi. "Angry Birds-dependent games maker Rovio swings to annual profit". reuters.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Rovio's Board of Directors appoints Mika Ihamuotila as new Chairman of the Board". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Angry Birds maker Rovio announces plans for IPO to raise $36 million". venturebeat.com. 5 September 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Rovio confirm plan for IPO on Helsinki NASDAQ". mcvuk.com. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ "Angry Birds maker Rovio sets IPO price range that values company around $1 billion". venturebeat.com. 15 September 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
^ Field, Matthew (2 March 2018). "Angry Birds maker Rovio shutters London studio as results disappoint". Retrieved 19 July 2018 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
^ https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/ex-gameloft-exec-joins-rovio-entertainment-1203028274/
^ "Angry Birds firm Rovio buys strategy game studio PlayRaven". 1 December 2018 – via www.reuters.com.
External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rovio Mobile. |
- Official website
