Rovio's Angry Birds illustrates a good point: never take fun for granted
Riding on its fun-filled growth, Rovio will release a whole bunch of new Angry Birds games in 2012, along with several animations and new books.
By Rituparna Chatterjee, ET Bureau |
Fun is Peter Vesterbacka’s favourite word. Vesterbacka is the Mighty Eagle at Rovio Mobile, and if you look closely you may see an arguable resemblance.
The Epoo, Finland-based company, makes the outrageously popular video game, Angry Birds. Out since December 2009, the game has now been downloaded half-a-billion times and is played for over 300 million minutes every single day. And the Mighty Eagle credits the company’s addiction to fun, as being responsible for its success.
“When you are having fun creating something, the result is most fun as well!” says Vesterbacka. “That’s why the most important thing for us is to create games that we like to play ourselves.” Rovio engineers came up with the Angry Birds game and many of its features while they were just hanging out informally like college students and having, well, fun.
For instance, the quirkily cute sounds of the game were a result of the developers having a few beers and fooling around making funny sounds themselves. As for the game itself, Rovio claims the reason it took merely eight months to make is because the developers had such a blast playing it while they were building it.
Every startup dreams of the almost virallike popularity of Angry Birds and the almost-instantaneous success of Rovio Mobile. In November 2011, the world’s first Angry Birds store was unveiled in Helsinki. Fans can buy Angry Birds merchandise like shirts, toys, bags, custom decorations and an interactive life-size slingshot which makes sounds from the game.
The company grew from having about a dozen employees last year to well over 200 today. But this crazy growth is exactly the single-biggest challenge the company is facing right now. “Challenges are always there but they are meant to be overcome. And when you are having fun, everything is easier!” says Vesterbacka.
So riding on its fun-filled growth, Rovio will release a whole bunch of new Angry Birds games in 2012, along with several animations and new books. As the Mighty Eagle says, 2012 will be all about “Fun, fun, fun!”
The Epoo, Finland-based company, makes the outrageously popular video game, Angry Birds. Out since December 2009, the game has now been downloaded half-a-billion times and is played for over 300 million minutes every single day. And the Mighty Eagle credits the company’s addiction to fun, as being responsible for its success.
“When you are having fun creating something, the result is most fun as well!” says Vesterbacka. “That’s why the most important thing for us is to create games that we like to play ourselves.” Rovio engineers came up with the Angry Birds game and many of its features while they were just hanging out informally like college students and having, well, fun.
For instance, the quirkily cute sounds of the game were a result of the developers having a few beers and fooling around making funny sounds themselves. As for the game itself, Rovio claims the reason it took merely eight months to make is because the developers had such a blast playing it while they were building it.
Every startup dreams of the almost virallike popularity of Angry Birds and the almost-instantaneous success of Rovio Mobile. In November 2011, the world’s first Angry Birds store was unveiled in Helsinki. Fans can buy Angry Birds merchandise like shirts, toys, bags, custom decorations and an interactive life-size slingshot which makes sounds from the game.
The company grew from having about a dozen employees last year to well over 200 today. But this crazy growth is exactly the single-biggest challenge the company is facing right now. “Challenges are always there but they are meant to be overcome. And when you are having fun, everything is easier!” says Vesterbacka.
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So riding on its fun-filled growth, Rovio will release a whole bunch of new Angry Birds games in 2012, along with several animations and new books. As the Mighty Eagle says, 2012 will be all about “Fun, fun, fun!”
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