Rovio’s ambitious plans sound increasingly plausible
Speaking at the Pocket Gamer Connects conference in London, Rovio chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka announced Angry Birds has achieved two billion downloads, reports Mobile Entertainment.
“We started as a mobile games company ten years ago and created 51 games before Angry Birds — it’s not easy to stand out and say something like, ‘I’m going to take on Coke and make a soft drink company.’ Nobody in their right mind would.”
But Rovio did and, according to Vesterbacka, “45 percent of our business comes from physical products, including drinks.” And then there’s this staggering data: nine out of ten people in the US know Angry Birds, while 93 percent of the Chinese population recognizes the brand.
“Download figures tell you nothing about engagement, but we still have 200 million people playing Angry Birds every month, the size of the Twitter audience,” he said. “What started as a little game is a major brand and franchise. Our friends at Disney are still a bit ahead but our trajectory looks good. We’re just getting started.”
PG Connects: Rovio’s Vesterbacka: They called me crazy – now Angry Birds rivals Coke [Mobile Entertainment]