Sign in / up

back to article Angry Birds maker Rovio takes aim at staff, axes a third of them

Angry Birds maker Rovio has announced plans to lay off 260 employees. The Finnish mobile-games-developer-turned-entertainment-franchise said on Wednesday that roughly one third of its work force will be cut as it narrows its focus on its core games and media businesses. "This is personally a difficult decision," said Rovio …

COMMENTS

Post your comment
House rules Send corrections
Add to 'My topics' unstar *
  1. oldtaku Silver badge

    Aren't they making more money from merch than games now? I hope so, because they obviously have no idea what make Angry Birds so appealing in the first place. They haven't been able to replicate it since, and Angry Birds 2 is absolutely terrible. There are some good mechanics in there but the F2P crap completely kills the 'one more time!' factor.

    6 0 Reply
  2. djstardust

    Greed to put it simply ....

    The original Angry Birds for the ipod touch and iphone was superb. Cheap, simple to play, addictive, frequently updated and original.

    They then got greedy with the mighty eagle and such then went down the freemium route for sequels which everyone hates except the game companies and the people getting a cut like Apple and Google.

    Sadly most of these game companies are very much a one trick pony, it has happened time and time again where companies like Rovio come from nowhere, get heavily invested in, go to shit then go bust.

    Nothing new.

    21 0 Reply
    1. TheOtherHobbes
      Reply Icon

      Re: Greed to put it simply ....

      You don't need to worry until they announce they're working on a self-driving car.

      0 0 Reply
    2. Tascam Holiday
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Down

      Re: Greed to put it simply ....

      They no longer make simple addictive games, just crash-prone ad-delivery apps.

      6 0 Reply
    3. Robert Helpmann??
      Reply Icon
      Childcatcher

      Re: Greed to put it simply ....

      They also did what many aging actors do: they started appearing in ads. There was an Angry Birds game or mini game to support a pizzeria, pistachios, a race car driver, movies, a rock band... I lost track. That's neither being ambitious nor establishing your own brand.

      3 0 Reply
    4. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Greed to put it simply ....

      Sadly most of these game companies are very much a one trick pony, it has happened time and time again where companies like Rovio come from nowhere, get heavily invested in, go to shit then go bust.

      Remind me again, how much did Twerpsoft pay for Minecraft?

      1 0 Reply
      1. DropBear
        Reply Icon

        Re: Greed to put it simply ....

        "Remind me again, how much did Twerpsoft pay for Minecraft?"

        Gladly, right after you remind me of how many people have built full-size Enterprise replicas or functioning CPUs in Angry Birds. Go ahead, I'll wait...

        0 0 Reply
  3. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    An Angry Birds Animation?

    For what purpose? Who is the target audience for balls with toothed beaks?

    I don't know why Tommy Hilfiger clothing comes to mind.

    3 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: An Angry Birds Animation?

      Sadly I can tell you of at least one four year old who will watch that shit on the Angry Bird channel (ToonsTV now I guess) for hours on Roku if so allowed.

      1 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let it not be said that Finland lacks management talent!

    That's quite some swish CEO bollix being spouted: start the layoffs by pretending to be prey to human emotions ("personally difficult"), segue into the sunny future full of agile success linked tenuously to your unproven new flutter of making a movie, and round it off by calling the slow motion train wreck a "period of change"

    But I can't fault him on "Rovio's ... eagerness to explore new business opportunities over the past few years has been exceptional", since my local store has Angry Birds underpants for 3-year old boys. Perhaps many of those laid off had titles like "Visionary" or "Evangelist" or "Garland of Flowers"?

    2 0 Reply
  5. Winkypop Silver badge
    Coat

    They fire their employees?

    Do they use a large sling-shot?

    Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee........

    7 0 Reply
  6. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "focus on where we are at our best: in creating magnificent gaming experiences"

    You had ONE good game, guys, so the plural is unnecessary and you should have stopped your sentence there.

    Talk about success getting to one's head - this guy obviously thinks he deserves it for all his hard work. Actually, he just got lucky and is now up the creek wondering why he doesn't have a paddle.

    There are so many bigwigs who think they succeeded. They then proceed to act like everything they think of is genius until it all comes crashing down around them. Then they blame the market conditions.

    5 0 Reply
    1. dotdavid
      Reply Icon

      Re: "focus on where we are at our best: in creating magnificent gaming experiences"

      The game was okay, but benefited hugely from the fact that it became a fad for a while. From what I understand they capitalised on that with merchandise and a billion sequels which is all well and good.

      Of course privately they knew they'd been lucky and frantically tried to develop something, anything, that would be as successful as their original game. Of course they failed because like viral content no-one can quite predict what will be popular; though they had middling success by trading on their "makers of Angry Birds" reputation. Still that in time will wear off.

      I don't understand the movie; it's not like the game has any plot to speak of, and the production time of a movie is way longer than the life of a fad so the window for success is very short. Still maybe they know something I don't; I own no multimillion dollar businesses after all.

      2 0 Reply
      1. future research
        Reply Icon

        Re: "focus on where we are at our best: in creating magnificent gaming experiences"

        I own no multimillion dollar businesses after all.

        neither will Rovio soon. A 1 hit wonder being in the right place at the right time, is going to be difficult to replicate. It did have the 3 element of also being a good game ( a requirement, but a minor one to the other 2)

        2 0 Reply
      2. Lamont Cranston
        Reply Icon

        Re: "focus on where we are at our best: in creating magnificent gaming experiences"

        My kids went mad for the cartoons they started adding on to the games, but have never found the games themselves to be all that engaging. They're all but grown out of it now, but I don't doubt that kids a few years younger will be pestering their parents to take them to the film. With any luck, that ought to be the end of the franchise, but I suppose the extra hype will push it along for a few more years.

        At least Moshi Monsters are on the way out.

        0 0 Reply
      3. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "focus on where we are at our best: in creating magnificent gaming experiences"

        Coincidentally, I was walking past a charity shop earlier this week, and saw some Angry Birds shaped loudspeaker thing in the window- it smacked of "yesterday's fad".

        When they started merchandising Angry Birds, you couldn't blame them for that, but they should have recognised it for the fad it was and known that- as you say- the window for such exploitation was inherently limited.

        The movie you mention is apparently due out next year, but it should have been out last year at latest. I suspect it'll probably still make its medium-sized budget back on DVD sales to kids, but they've probably left it too late for it to do much more than that.

        2 0 Reply

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

Forgotten password ?

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like