Well, from a game perspective, Angry Birds 2 is pretty good. It gets rid of a lot of the annoyances in the first series of games. It's much easier to knock down small parts of buildings now.
Rovio to Cut 260 Jobs as the Angry Birds Franchise Becomes Irrelevant
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Re: Rovio to Cut 260 Jobs as the Angry Birds Franchise Becomes Irrelevant
#22Well, from a game perspective, Angry Birds 2 is pretty good. It gets rid of a lot of the annoyances in the first series of games. It's much easier to knock down small parts of buildings now.
Re: Rovio to Cut 260 Jobs as the Angry Birds Franchise Becomes Irrelevant
#23I'm not surprised, they have been cranking out the same game over and over again, re-branded and/or adding slightly different abilities without changing the basic game. After playing the Star Wars version for a little while I deleted it because the concept (while initially fun and interesting) had gotten old. They did release something called "Bad Piggies" too which I thought was a fun different game but along the sa…
Interesting that you mention Star Wars, because it's one of the few franchises that has been able to continually reinvent itself over the years, while raking it in from various video games, comic books, furniture etc.
Angry Birds tried to do the same. A few years ago you couldn't walk past a park or school without seeing a kid in an Angry Birds shirt or carrying one of those goody stuffed pigs. Only problem is that they milked the franchise without letting it evolve, or invest the profits in other opportunities (they tried, but how can you go from mega-hit to fresh start and hit the same lightning rod twice?). Just like that tacky wall-mounted singing fish, Angry Birds had a typical product lifetime, and Rovio should have expected their one trick pony to obey the currents of time.
Re: Rovio to Cut 260 Jobs as the Angry Birds Franchise Becomes Irrelevant
#24Sounds like a case of too many eggs in one basket. Why didn't they diversify more into the micro transaction space with a different game I wonder?
I think they did try that - I loved the Rovio game Retry, which was a tiny plane flying through a Sonic-The-Hedgehog-like world, with a Flappy Bird mechanic and a retro 80s synthpop aesthetic:
http://www.rovio.com/en/our-work/games/view/71/retry
Levels were split into checkpoints (ala Sonic), and you could save your place at a checkpoint by either watching a video ad, spending a coin (collected in game or bought with real money), or you could fly on and get a bonus for completing a level without any saved checkpoints. I'm not much of a gamer, but I've apparently spent nearly 15 hours playing Retry (yikes).
Re: Rovio to Cut 260 Jobs as the Angry Birds Franchise Becomes Irrelevant
#25I'm not surprised, they have been cranking out the same game over and over again, re-branded and/or adding slightly different abilities without changing the basic game. After playing the Star Wars version for a little while I deleted it because the concept (while initially fun and interesting) had gotten old. They did release something called "Bad Piggies" too which I thought was a fun different game but along the sa…
They also tried publishing different games, Amazing Alex for example. The truth is, for such simple things and for this definition of "success" (i.e. being the global hit of the moment) there is no formula. For a comparison, look at King, what success do they have outside of candy crush? And it's not for the lack of games as they have quite a few.
As a counter-example, Supercell is extremely successful with Hay Day and Boom Beach besides Clash of Clans.
Maybe it isn't all just luck.
Re: Rovio to Cut 260 Jobs as the Angry Birds Franchise Becomes Irrelevant
#26> There is one last hope for Rovio — The Angry Birds Movie. Dear god why?
Kids, that's why.
Re: Rovio to Cut 260 Jobs as the Angry Birds Franchise Becomes Irrelevant
#27I'm not surprised, they have been cranking out the same game over and over again, re-branded and/or adding slightly different abilities without changing the basic game. After playing the Star Wars version for a little while I deleted it because the concept (while initially fun and interesting) had gotten old. They did release something called "Bad Piggies" too which I thought was a fun different game but along the sa…
Even so, Angry Birds 2 has a level of polish that makes the original look like some indie side project. If there's such thing as a AAA casual game, this is it.
Which really shows how sad this business is -- a true sequel to a smash hit that goes way beyond the original sells so poorly that it leads to mass layoffs.
Re: Rovio to Cut 260 Jobs as the Angry Birds Franchise Becomes Irrelevant
#28Brings up an interesting thought exercise. Let's say you do start a small mobile game company and your game blows up into a cultural phenomena like Angry Birds.
And like all of these things, you know that one day in the indeterminate future, that phenomena will fade, much like Angry Birds has.
How do you best handle this? Do you sell early and get out quickly? Do you try to build something larger out of the resources you now have?
I'd be tempted to cash out early and just enjoy the fruits of my success.
Re: Rovio to Cut 260 Jobs as the Angry Birds Franchise Becomes Irrelevant
#29Sounds like a case of too many eggs in one basket. Why didn't they diversify more into the micro transaction space with a different game I wonder?
They certainly tried with Angry Birds Fight! ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds-fight!/id9339580... ) and Angry Birds GO! ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds-go!/id642821482?... ) A few of the more recent physics games had strong freemium mechanics, like Angry Birds Transformers ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds-transformers/id8... ) as well.
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Re: Rovio to Cut 260 Jobs as the Angry Birds Franchise Becomes Irrelevant
#30Sounds like a case of too many eggs in one basket. Why didn't they diversify more into the micro transaction space with a different game I wonder?
They certainly tried with Angry Birds Fight! ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds-fight!/id9339580... ) and Angry Birds GO! ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds-go!/id642821482?... ) A few of the more recent physics games had strong freemium mechanics, like Angry Birds Transformers ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds-transformers/id8... ) as well.
My favorite Rovio spin-off of the Angry Birds franchise was Bad Piggies, sort of an Incredible Machines take on the physics game, where you had to build a contraption to complete the level objectives. So yeah, they certainly tried.