It's Official, SEGA Is Buying Angry Birds Maker, Rovio

I wasn't aware that Rovio was still relevant.

I did not see that coming! Maybe, just maybe, they can help them with their greed problem, or better called, he mobile game curse! (FTP curse etc)

How ironic, since I compared the Angry Birds craze with all the merch on sale to Mario back in the early 90s. And now them birdies are part of SEGA.

I feel this could help Rovio boost sales as Sega was a fundamental part of euro gaming in the late 80s and 90s. Maybe we might see an Angry Birds and Sonic Crossover (just kidding), but honestly I hope this helps to build up a great friendship that will be vital to gaming.

I would like one day for Sega to have another go at the console market. They made some good hardware but shot themselves in the foot with too many upgrades. I feel there is room in the industry for a return of Sega.

I’d say Sega is buying mobile gaming knowledge and expertise more than they are buying Angry Birds.

Although, it’s not a bad franchise to have under the Sega umbrella.

Most people will be aware of Angry Birds from the games. However, if you have younger kids they’ll likely know them more because of the two movies and TV series. They also had some of the best Happy Meals toys too (before McDonalds UK got crap). My kids got into Angry Birds only a couple of years ago because of the Netflix and McDonalds.

So the brand recognition is still sky high even if the games aren’t so popular these days.

So Sega are buying games that are old news? Erm.....great??
How the mighty have fallen, I loved Sega in the 90s

@SwagaliciousJohnson they still have pulling power.

They currently have a game in the to 10 paid apps on the App Store.

In free apps they are ranked 160, which is still respectable when you consider the competition.

For reference, Super Mario Run is ranked 125. Fruit Ninja 149. So it’s close to other fairly big hitters.

Sega already has Football Manager which is rank 3 in Paid. So having two in the top ten is quite nice.

Rovio made $350m last year in revenue. So the price makes sense.

It also gives Sega a load of mobile expertise - a market that continues to account for a huge number of gamers and the total spend for the market.

I’m sure Sega knows what they’re doing.. can’t say the same of their own IP however

@Duncanballs
I find that very unlikely.
Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all have a much bigger arm in terms of active franchises at this point and a huge lead in hardware and software design.
Sega has Sonic, Yakuza...and then a pretty major gap until...Megami Tensei? Virtua Fighter?

I don't really see where Sega would fit into the market or how they could become a relevant hardware manufacturer.

Looking forward to playing Angry Hedgehogs next year.

Huh, quite the turn for Sonic 3 to become Sonic vs Redbird: Dawn of Justice.

Heard a rumor last week. Now to apply for Rovio so I have a connection to Sega and possibly get to work on their franchises in the future. If I didn't already have a job I'm happy with, that is.

Sonic and the Angry Birds...

@Bunkerneath

Lol they didn't buy Rovio to get Angry Birds. They bought Rovio for their mobile game skills and knowledge of the platform and with that are aiming at mobile games more. You know, they've made plenty of other mobile games besides a zillion versions of Angry Birds
They bought the people to work and develop mobile games, not game franchise (that will ofc come in sale, but wasn't the point)

SEGA buying Rovio is much better news than it being bought by Playtika, that was rumoured earlier this year. Now Rovio may even stay in Finland (hopefully) and not be axed after a year or two, which happens often with mobile game companies buying each other (and Playtika is bit...ugh)

That doesn't feel like a lot for buying a company that took over the world for a while

Can't wait to play as the Birds and Piggies in Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing 3!

@HalloHerrNoob they were one of the kings of the arcade era. That is a gap in the market

@JR150 Honestly, I want the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, S.E.E.S., and the Investigation Team.
And also the Like a Dragon characters, and since SEGA owns TMS, Lupin III + Daisuke Jigen + Goemon Ishikawa, in the iconic Castle of Cagliostro car. As well as Fujiko Mine in her motorcycle, Inspector Zenigata in his police car, and Count Cagliostro in his autogyro.

@Hydra_Spectre
TMS characters would likely be Switch exclusive since they're part of Nintendo's Fire Emblem series but Touma on his Cain motorcycle would be perfect. I'd also like to see mainline SMT characters like Flynn, Nahobino, and Hell Biker, as well as Tatsuya from Persona 2.

The Valkyria Chronicles (a SEGA RPG) series also has potential. Welkin and Alicia in the Edelweiss for instance or Claude and Raz in the Hafen.

At first I was thinking 'what a waste of money' and lmfao when I read this. But then I realized there is people who play candy crush and stuff and I prolly shouldn't judge that decision based on my gaming habits.

Sega re-enters the home console market, confirmed

Hmm I feel like it would more sense if they focused more money on game dev studios where their fanbase is rather than diving head first into the mobile market which doesn't always guarantee success, as long as it doesn't fail it seems like a huge investment without predictable results especially since Rovio is a fading out brand and you have to question why they are fading out.

Unless I'm mistaken Rovio has only exclusively made Angry Birds games which is a dying out franchise. I see it as a red flag if they haven't been able to make any other successful IPs all this time.

Im more surprised Sega had all that money

90% of the movie and TV industry is in the hands of 5 conglomerates (Disney, Warner, Paramount, Universal and Sony), this is a major reason why Hollywood sucks, even when they release good movies, they don't want to create new things and want to just keep recycling what they already have, and these conglomerates also own journalism companies, making things even worse.

Disney buying Marvel, Lucasfilm and Fox didn't go well, for the people who liked the franchises Disney bought and for the people who liked Disney before those acquisitions.

Warner Bros. and Discovery merger caused many projects to be cancelled, including some of them that were finished, and even works that were already released were removed from distribution.

Activision and Blizzard merging was terrible for Blizzard fans.

20 years later, most people agree that SquareSoft and Enix becoming Square-Enix allowed us to play some great games and there are franchises that stayed well, but overall, the merger was bad for those who liked what both companies had to offer.

EA has a history of buying smaller companies who are not billionaire but still, and ruining them and their franchises, and shutting them down.

Before Konami became a terrible company, they bought and absorbed Hudson, not only ruining the Castlevania, Contra and many other Konami franchises, but also ruining Bomberman, Adventure Island and other Hudson franchises.

But relax, Microsoft buying Activision is going to be good for us and Blizzard will be fixed, trust me bro, everyone who complains is a whiny and envious Sony fanboy.

@Poco_Lypso
Yeah no matter how many of us console/PC players think mobile platform is stupid and silly and so on, it' is still HUGE market that simply cannot be avoided in today's world.

Rovio has been milking Angry Birds over a decade and those still have some sort of sales. This purchase really sounds like (hopefully) that SEGA comes up with the game idea and Rovio just makes it. Or SEGA takes some of their IPs and Rovio makes it mobile game. Rovio really hasn't been bursting with ideas outside of Birds.

I wish Nintendo would buy Capcom

@NintendoEternity Don't wish for that.

Market concentration in the hands of a few companies is terrible for the customer.

So, ...

Angry Birds vs. Flickies anyone?

For as funny as this is (and trust me: it's absolutely hilarious), SEGA has a track record of taking studios seemingly on the brink of doom and turning them around in spectacular fashion (Atlus is a perfect example: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/09/sega_sammy_acquires_atlus_parent_company_index_for_14_billion_yen ) so I'm not going to write this off just yet

@victordamazio
It’s been pretty ominous how people have become fanboys of consolidation hell now in spite of the sheer history of it being lately negative, buying multiple billion dollar publishers is neato now and surely won’t have any negative consequences especially as the AAA industry gets closer and closer to unsustainable heat death.

I wouldn't mind replaying Angry Birds on Switch. I think Sega wants to concentrate more on cell phone games with this purchase, but hopefully they will still bring Angry Birds over to Switch.

@NintendoEternity wut. Capcom is doing gangbusters without Nintendo's help. Leave them alone. I do not want SF6 as a Switch exclusive.

It will all be worth it when you can play angry birds as a mini game in Yakuza

Let me remind you that the Sonic x Angry Birds crossover is actually a thing already in Sonic Dash.

Good for them, soon the Flickies will be replaced by the Angry Birds.

@jemil1992 that is literally what they are going to do.

@jemil1992 there was an actual crossover between the two in Sonic Dash

Remember that not only will Sega own Angry Birds, but have over 500+ well trained developers and a massive boost to their revenue. They could easily make their money back in as little as two years. Also, this further boosts Sega of Europe's development power, as nearly all the companies SegaSammy has bought since the merger in 2004, have been for SoE. (Other than Atlus and TMS)

I hope they do better with them than they did with Demiurge Studios. I loved Sega Heroes, and that game was killed too soon because of greed. I hope Sega doesn't become even greedier with this acquisition. Which I am not privy to what actually happened between them deciding to part ways but Sega Heroes was the only mobile game I've ever spent money on and it will be the last.

Striking while the iron is hot

As much as people roast SEGA on this, Angry Birds is still going and its still fun. I really like Angry Birds Reloaded on Apple Arcade. There’s no microtransactions, its got classic and remixed levels and its now at the point where its comfortable adding new and interesting mechanics.

Them and SEGA Hardlight are talented mobile developers. I’d like to see if the goal is for them to work together on a project.

To be honest this isn’t that surprising since sonic did make a appearance in angry birds epic and red was in sonic dash.

@SoIDecidedTo I remember that game! I still wished that billy Hatcher characters were included
In the game before it shut down. Also I was still confused how they were gonna make Lucy from dynamite dux as a playable character since she was in the poll.

@Greatluigi I had held out hope for so long that someone would make a hack so it could play offline. It's one of my favorite match games ever. Maybe if one day I'm rich I'll figure out how to have someone make one. haha I saved the game on my old phone and still click it from time to time to see if any way to connect.

I'm cool with it. I still play AB when I'm super bored.

Before the Angry Birds games took off, Rovio also developed the Bounce series of games on Nokia phones, most notably Bounce Boing Voyage on the N-gage 2.0, which is a very good 3D puzzle platformer on its own right. Hope they can revive the near-forgotten IP and maybe do a remake of its past games.

Cannot wait for Angry Birds Persona 5 edition

The fact that the Angry Birds creator sold for less than a billion should show how far they’ve fallen in popularity.

They weren’t bad early phone games though! I enjoyed a couple and Bad Piggies.

I am really curious to see what will come out of this. I also wonder what Sega sees in them considering the declining popularity of Angry Birds. In any event, seeing how this plays into Sega's future will be fun to watch.

You guys jest about Angry Birds and Sonic crossovers, but it's an inevitability at this point.

@Sisilly_G Actually it already happened with Sonic Dash and Angry Birds Epic at one point in time

@KBuckley27 That was my first thought.

@Dpullam Sure, it's not as big as it once was, but it still makes bank. Some reports say that this deal will pay for itself in as little as two years.

@TotalHenshin Considering Rovio turned down an offer worth $800 Million from another mobile developer, something tells me that Sega offered something much more than money for the deal. Semi-Independence like with other Sega of Europe studios?

@JR150 I didn’t mean Tokyo Mirage Sessions (but those would be good too).
I meant SEGA’s anime studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha, which made Lupin III, Detective Conan (Case Closed), Sherlock Hound, and Sonic X.

@Duncanballs i would like a new Sega console myself, but there's no room in the market. Nintendo was in danger before Switch, mighty Sony is struggling too (specially in Japan) in a very competitive market, and xbox is still on the game only cause of the near unlimited money muscle of mother company. I don't see how sega can compete with game pass and playstation plus

@Duncanballs That's not a gap. Arcades are dead as anything more than a curio of bygone time.

@Maulbert I think that is the gap. Arcades are not as popular as they used to be but that gives the opportunity and gap to fill. The likes of Sega and moreso Neogeo used to produce arcade orientated home experiences and I would welcome that type of hardware in the market.

A console dedicated to coin op style play (high scores, limited lives, 2-4 player co op etc) with fightsticks, light guns etc would do well I think.

Go sega!! Absolute legends

@victordamazio

I mean maybe because many of them are. The same people who complained about Microsoft buying Activision silly didn't have any problems with sony was buying up franchises, undercutting others with exclusive deals and overall moneyhatting. And it's not like they haven't purchased companies that have been downsized or dissolved. Let's keep it real. That is why they get called out, because they were the biggest ones whining about me. Even from the top of that company on down.

@Cashews

Agreeing. Just pleeease keep the same energy when someone like sony is trying to cut checks to get the game exclusive to their console.

Ha... Sega is going to F up angry birds.

@Danrenfroe2016 Eh, it's actually going to be a step up, if you ask me.