Game developer and publisher Sega is to buy Rovio, maker of the “Angry Birds” game series and related merch including a successful movie. The price tag is $1bn, reports the Wall Street Journal. Given the decline of the game series and the profitless movie sequel in 2019, there must be big plans for this sad dodo of a franchise to justify the investment. The Verge:
It’s surprising to think that Sega — specifically, its parent company Sega Sammy Holdings — would want to spend so much on Rovio given the decline in popularity of the Angry Birds games. The original game was a smash success in 2009, but the franchise has seemingly fallen off since its 2014 peak, when Rovio reported falling profits and layoffs. In 2016, Rovio tried a movie adaptation, The Angry Birds Movie, which was a box office success and is still the seventh highest grossing video game movie — even if reviews weren’t kind. Its 2019 sequel, The Angry Birds Movie 2, did not achieve the same success. Rovio watched as competitors like Candy Crush grew more and more, eating away interest in Angry Birds.
