Fox snaps up Angry Birds

The makers of Finnish game sensation Angry Birds have struck a deal with Twentieth Century Fox which will see the characters of a new 3D movie appear in the next version of the app. Rovio Mobile also this week debuted their new advert in conjunction with the makers of animated movie Ice Age at one of the biggest televised events in America – the Super Bowl.

“Not just any firm of our size gets a Super Bowl advertisement or goes into such visible cooperation with so big a player as Fox, so yes, there is a certain status in that,” said Rovio Mobile CEO Mikael Hed in a YLE report.

The Finnish firm produced the popular puzzle game that sees the player use a virtual catapult to launch wingless birds at pigs. The highly addictive application has been downloaded more than 50 million times and was top of the Apple App Store charts in 60 countries last year.

Rovio has already outgrown its premises twice and is looking to move offices again in August as the company expands. The firm has also set up training programmes as suitable employees are said to be in short supply.

“There are about 1,200 people working in the games industry in Finland and, at this stage, when we recruit dozens of them, this is already quite a high percentage,” said Hed.

In 2011, the runaway success story will see Angry Birds secure its own TV series, film and spin-off products as well as a special release for game consoles.

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