Finland-based entertainment company Rovio Entertainment — synonymous with the Angry Birds brand — said on Monday, Jan. 16, that it is going to open its fourth in-house studio in London.
Rovio Entertainment already has four studios in Scandinavia — three in Espoo, Finland and one in Stockholm, Sweden. The initial plan is to hire eight people in the first year and then increase the strength to around twenty the following year.
"Our business is profitably growing and London is the most logical place for us to found a new studio that will complement our overall global mix of internal and external developers. London is also a fantastically diverse talent magnet," says Antti Viitanen, SVP Studios.
It is believed that the new team will work to bring new massively multiplayer online (MMOs) games without relying on the Angry Birds brand.
Rovio Entertainment has faced tough times in recent years and even suffered a financial crisis due to a drop in profit from its Angry Birds franchise. This led to the company to downsize. During this phase, from 2014 to 2015, more than 300 employees of the company lost their job. However, things started to improve for Rovio Entertainment after the release of the Angry Birds Movie in 2016.
Success Of Angry Birds
Rovio Entertainment's first major success came with the release of Angry Birds in 2009, a puzzle game where a bird is flung using a slingshot. After its release, the game was downloaded more than 3 billion times. Initially, it was only released for iOS and Maemo devices in December 2009. Since then, 12 million copies of the game have been sold from the app store.
The game won several awards and accolades for the "Best Game App" and "App of the Year" at the UK Appy Awards in 2011 and "Best Game for Handheld Devices" at the Webby Awards in 2011.
The Finnish-American 3D computer animated film based on the video game series of the same name did well at the box office in 2016, which helped Rovio Entertainment in acquiring new licensing deals. The movie reportedly collected a whopping $350 million worldwide.
Rovio's London Studio
In a press release, Rovio Entertainment urges people who meet the required criteria to join its team in central London. On its official website, the company has listed the vacancies which include positions for art director, game developer, and technical director.
The move will certainly strengthen Rovio Entertainment's in-house development capacity and will assist the company in focusing on new intellectual properties, which takes it beyond the Angry Birds universe.
At its four game studios in Finland and Sweden, Rovio has around 200 employees. The company currently has about 400 people in total.
