Rovio is going to increase the average age of players

Finnish game studio Rovio managed to become a cult for all users of mobile devices after the release of Angry Birds in 2009. The company managed to build a real cult around this game series - from numerous accessories to animated series and a full-fledged movie. Angry Birds game remains the most downloaded game of the freemium genre, but even this does not allow Rovio to increase its quarterly earnings.

In 2014, the company's revenue decreased by 9%, and operating profit fell by 74%. The situation in 2015 is still unknown, but it is unlikely to differ for the better, especially considering that in October, Rovio fired 213 employees and changed its CEO in December . Against the background of not the most positive news, recently executive vice president of Rovio Wilhelm Taht, who previously headed the direction of external products, spoke about the company's main goals for the near future.

“We are going to double the current figures and try to significantly increase the average age of players among the users of our portfolio. We are trying to develop innovative things and new intellectual property (IP) for this, ”Takht said in an interview with Business Insider.
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At the same time, the company is not going to abandon support for the Andgry Birds brand, whose interest has declined in recent years, and plans to continue developing it through new projects. In part, the cartoon “Angry Birds to the cinema” can contribute to this, with a budget of $ 80 million.

As part of the release of new projects, Rovio launched Nibblers last year, but so far in the soft start format. The game is not available in all markets, and the purchase of traffic is still not as aggressive as in the case of other company projects.

“Nibblers began to gain momentum after we increased our advertising budgets in the first quarter. Does the stock game have enough to create a new IP at Angry Birds level? I dont know. I think that this project can become quite large with time. And very few brands were able to grow to the level of Angry Birds, ”Takht shared with journalists.

Despite staff cuts and workflow optimization, Rovio has no plans for attracting investments, acquisitions or IPOs in the near future. But even without additional investment "safety margin" from Angry Birds should be enough to support Rovio in the foreseeable future. According to Wilhelm Taht, the company is now focused on developing new projects, and we will be able to find out such an approach in demand in a couple of years.