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‘Angry Birds’ company is about to be sold for $1B to Sega
- solarkraft 4y agoAt their hight, when the popularity was near endless, they could probably have sold for many billions to some of the big players (Microsoft?). But what do they do now? Sega must have some big revitalization plans. I'm not saying that it can't work, but I don't quite see it at this point. Data point: I was at an AR (kind of) golf venue and they offered an Angry Birds mode (which they were really proud of). I thought it was pretty bad.
- HPsquared 4y agoOne-hit wonder?
- tough 4y agoAngry Bids
- NBJack 4y agoI prefer to go for the multi-hit, but the blue ones don't have enough inertia. In all seriousness, mobile gaming is an extremely crowded market. To their credit, they capitalized on their early success and did what they could to build what appears to be a franchise. And the first movie wasn't all that bad!
- mcphage 4y agoBad Piggies was one of my favorite games, ever.
- anshumankmr 4y agoAngry Birds (and its sequel) as well as Angry Birds: Star Wars were absolute hits, I think. Bad Piggies was also fantastic.
- moogly 4y agoCertainly a one-IP-hit wonder. Amazing Alex was a flop, wasn't it?
- mathgeek 4y agoPossibly. Their annual revenue [0] seems to be peaking in the low-to-mid ~six~ nine digits. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1249220/rovio-revenue-segment/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1249220/rovio-revenue-se...
- dgellow 4y ago> But what do they do now? I mean, look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rovio_Entertainment#2009%E2%80%93present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rovio_Entertainment#2009%E2%80... They have 2 released Angry Birds movies, 11 TV series, non-stop game releases for the past decade. They seem to be doing a lot of things.
- notfried 4y agoThey are still racking in the revenue, and have a solid business, despite the Angry Birds dependency. Per their Q4'22 filing [1], they had 1B in downloads and positive operating cash flow. Their 2022 revenue from Angry Birds is also the highest year since it launched. Their market cap is currently at 645M, so they're exiting at a premium. [1] https://investors.rovio.com/sites/rovio-ir-v2/files/2023-04/Rovio%20Entertainment_Investor%20Presentation_February%202023.pdf https://investors.rovio.com/sites/rovio-ir-v2/files/2023-04/...
- morjom 4y agoGreat, another Finnish success company being sold for no reason to Sega of all things...
- HopenHeyHi 4y ago[flagged]
- pokepim 4y ago[dead]
- speed_spread 4y agoNext, Nokian Tyres gets sold to a Chinese manufacturer of shopping cart wheels.
- Ekaros 4y agoI think cashing out might not be worst strategy with Angry Birds. It was somewhat early with Supercell, but with Angry Birds I think getting money while possible is great idea.
- pharmakom 4y agoAngry Birds really isn’t a very interesting game. I never understood the hype.
- trollied 4y agoI actually downloaded the original Angry Birds a few weeks ago, just for a little nostalgia trip. They've changed it & completely ruined it with ads and other crap. Deleted it after a few minutes. Was really disappointed. I Paid for the game originally. That's the game I want to play. Utter joke that this nonsense ever became acceptable.
- kroltan 4y agoIs it the actual original Angry Birds? (Now renamed "Red's First Flight" or something like that) IIRC they did this renaming switcheroo to get people into the freemium+ads-supported version. The original was undercutting their new monetization. (Which don't get me wrong, is exceedingly scummy already. "The original was undercutting their new monetization", AKA people prefer to not have ads and annoying freemium if they know the game is solid)
- lotsofpulp 4y agoApple Arcade still has a nice Angry Birds version with zero ads or gambling mechanics or any other nonsense. If it was not for Apple Arcade, I probably would restrict my kids to playing Kerbal Space Program or the few games I know that do not have all that garbage.
- theshrike79 4y agoApple Arcade is perfect for kids, you can let them install any game from there and you can be a 100% sure there's no predatory in-app purchases, subscriptions or ads. The Netflix games are trying the same approach. Basically they have games on the app stores but you can't play them without an active Netflix subscription.
- binkHN 4y agoIs there something like this for Android?
- Ageodene 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- krabizzwainch 4y agoI think I'm more surprised that Sega even has $1B to spend...
- cloudking 4y agoThey made some of it from the Sonic movies, both of which I personally enjoyed. Jim Carrey plays a legendary villain. https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2021/11/07/sega-talks-sonic-movie-success/ https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2021/11/07/sega-talks-s... https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2022/04/28/box-office-sonic-the-hedgehog-2-becomes-top-grossing-video-game-movie/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2022/04/28/box-o... A third movie is on the way.
- krabizzwainch 4y agoI definitely planned on watching both of these and just completely forgot about them. They should just use this money on a Dreamcast 2 instead!
- toast0 4y agoWhat would Dreamcast 2 bring for users or Sega? On the consumer side, I can only imagine it would be yet another x86 based console, because what else is there to do? Another samey controller, because once you add a right analog stick, and left and right bumpers and a home button, what do you have left to differentiate on? Can't even put the cable on the wrong side anymore. I guess you could have a nicer screen and just build it into the controller, but that was hardly used last time. On Sega's side, they're going to do all that R&D to make the same thing as everyone else and then how are they going to make the money back? Not on first party game sales. Third party sales will be hard too, unless they have some really strong pitch, but at this point, they're really a new entrant, so who's going to port to the new guy's platform, unless it's so amazing and underpriced that everyone will want to buy it. Might be nice if they can figure out how to make a mini-dreamcast though. Depends on how many games they can get licensees to sign up for though, I guess.
- jmrm 4y ago
- theshrike79 4y agoThe theory is that Sega made bank with the Sonic movies and the Angry Birds movies were the least crap movies based on games for a LOOOONG time - the second one still has 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. A streak broken only by this year's D&D movie (90% RT + "fresh" rating) This way Sega gets its foot in the mobile gaming door and also gets the people who made the Angry Birds movies and TV show(s) on their payroll.
- jbuhbjlnjbn 4y ago>the second one still has 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Using Rotten Tomatoes as a legitimate measure of quality, you need to use the inverse value of their score.
- jeffreportmill1 4y agoDid they ever make things right with the creator of Box2D? https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/28/creator-of-angry-birds-physics-engine-calls-out-rovio-for-not-giving-him-credit/ https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/28/creator-of-angry-birds-phy...
- karlshea 4y agoYour own link answers the very question you asked.
- Salgat 4y agoAll they say is "we acknowledge it uses Box2D and we'd be happy to discuss it with the creator later". There's no follow-up, which I'm curious about too since one of the questions raised was whether Rovio would consider supporting the project.
- Jare 4y agoHe's been credited for Box2D in many games, including a number of Angry Birds iterations. They sit nicely along all the work on Blizzard's physics technology across all their games. https://www.mobygames.com/person/221583/erin-catto/credits/ https://www.mobygames.com/person/221583/erin-catto/credits/
- karlshea 4y agoThe link has an update at the bottom from the creator (Erin Catto), there wasn't ever any drama and he was credited.
- xaduha 4y agoAny copyright and/or trademark experts around? It says here that previously Sega owned Alpha Protocol trademark has expired. Does that mean anyone can just use it? I know that the setting was generic as hell, but still. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Protocol#cite_note-62 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Protocol#cite_note-62
- zerocrates 4y agoThe trademark is just the name. Setting, story, characters, etc. would be covered by the copyright and unaffected by a trademark expiration.
- xaduha 4y agoA pity. Sega hates this game for some reason, you can't even buy it on Steam anymore.
- zokier 4y ago"Some reason" might be 72/64/63 (PC/PS/XB) Metacritic scores and poor sales ("The game's slow sales contributed to Sega's lower-than-expected financial results in the three months ending on June 30, 2011")?
- xaduha 4y agoVery bad first impression is what this game excels at, but it gets better. In any case that's in the past and it looks like their music rights expired, that why it was pulled from Steam, not because of some special kind of malice to an old game. Situation still sucks though. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/segas-rights-as-publisher-of-alpha-protocol-have-expired https://www.gamesindustry.biz/segas-rights-as-publisher-of-a...
- anon_cow1111 4y agoNine years ago the guy who made "Crush the Castle" did an ama on Reddit and said it was "kind of flattering" that Angry Birds completely ripped off his game and people enjoyed playing it. I wonder if he still feels the same way. https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1iu1ih/i_am_joey_betz_the_creator_of_the_games_crush_the/ https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1iu1ih/i_am_joey_betz...
- Auracle 4y agoWay back in the day I had a flash games website. If I remember correctly there was another game like Crush the Castle that actually came first, though I can’t remember the name now. Anyways, it’s not like Angry Birds didn’t refine the formula. The slingshot mechanic was better for touch screens, the different birds types, and making the art cutesy.
- waste_monk 4y ago> and making the art cutesy. I can't find it but recall reading somewhere that the original "pitch" for angry birds was just a bunch of bird sketches submitted to a company-internal brainstorming session. Then they tacked on the gameplay etc. afterwards.
- TillE 4y agoThat's how everything works. Literally every CRPG (and every crappy mobile game with an XP/level mechanic) owes an enormous debt to Dungeons & Dragons. WotC is a big company, and D&D is bigger than it's ever been, but like Diablo 4 is gonna net more profit than D&D makes in a decade.
- lelanthran 4y ago> hat's how everything works. Literally every CRPG (and every crappy mobile game with an XP/level mechanic) owes an enormous debt to Dungeons & Dragons And they owe almost everything to the lore from Tolkien's middle-earth.
- 4y ago
- jbuhbjlnjbn 4y agoAngry Birds Android App was used to bulk collect user data. https://www.entrepreneur.com/science-technology/the-nsa-is-using-angry-birds-to-spy-on-you/231083 https://www.entrepreneur.com/science-technology/the-nsa-is-u... If you do not trust this specific source, there are plenty others easy to find by search engine. Unfortunate choice for Sega to acquire such a company.
- mynameisvlad 4y ago> Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html You also don't seem to have an earlier comment here that was being downvoted.
- jbuhbjlnjbn 4y agoI edited my post - better? My earlier comment was downvoted in record time for stating the same, so I made a new post. What's the reason to have such a guideline? I suspect manipulative downvotes to silence my opinion. Otherwise, why not comment and correct my fallacies instead?
- mynameisvlad 4y agoI mean it's explained pretty clearly in the second sentence. > It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. People are here to talk about interesting topics. That you are being downvoted is not a very interesting topic to anyone but yourself. You pointing it out also isn't going to magically make the downvotes go away. > I suspect manipulative downvotes to silence my opinion. It takes 501 karma to unlock downvoting. People aren't here making dozens of accounts just to take away your fake internet points.
- jbuhbjlnjbn 4y agoI have read plenty of threads where completely legitimate comments are downvoted to the point you cannot read them anymore, it is the same for other users' comments. This is not my personal ego trip. (and by the way, I make it a habit to always upvote those comments independent of content, just because I despise censorship through the backdoor) The reason why it still should be allowed to talk about it is to hinder, or raise awareness of vote manipulation in the comments. "it is boring" is not a logical explanation, but maybe that's just me.
- nobrains 4y agoRelevant documentary about Angry Birds and its journey to a much higher valuation, and now down to $1B: https://youtu.be/VEVLHtzFle4 https://youtu.be/VEVLHtzFle4
- _the_inflator 4y agoAs a developer, the best thing to say about Angry Birds is, that is put box2d on my map. I extensively used box2d within the LibGDX framework. And yes, there is a story around not giving credit to the inventor of box2d: https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/28/creator-of-angry-birds-physics-engine-calls-out-rovio-for-not-giving-him-credit/ https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/28/creator-of-angry-birds-phy...
- bookofjoe 4y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35584583 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35584583
- pipeline_peak 4y agoSega is pretty notorious for bad business decisions… How is Angry Birds worth 1B, are we in 2013 with Fruit Ninja and Temple Run?
- m3kw9 4y agoThey took investments and then didn’t know how to spend it, as you can see they spent it on crap. Maybe it the Ip was just way over valued.
- pcurve 4y agooh boy, someone is laughing way to the bank... (and it's not sega)
- lostgame 4y agoAs a SEGA kid growing up through the 90's, I got to watch my favourite console and game maker make business decision after business decision so incredulously stupid, just - so unbelievably, shockingly daft; that one would have to assume the corporation itself was somehow a sentient - yet suicidal - entity. From the baffling release of the 32x 'console', to the jump-start release of the Saturn (which cost them insanely valuable retail connections and meant software wasn't ready for launch) - to the shit-show that was the never-released Sonic X-Treme - SEGA seemed obsessively dedicated to making sure it made every major business decision as damaging to its existence as possible. By the time they finally produced a frankly phenomenal offering with the Dreamcast, the industry's good will towards SEGA had all but vanished. I recall EA saying after the debacle with the Saturn they wouldn't even make games for the Dreamcast. All these years later, that girl who grew up getting and cherishing her SEGA Genesis as a Christmas gift in 1993(4?), spending way too much time on the playground about how much better SEGA was ('there's actual blood in Mortal Kombat, though, suck that, Nintendorks!') fully expected to be using the equivalent of a Dreamcast 5, and if SEGA hadn't been frankly just so incredibly stupid, I most likely would be. This is just a continuation of normal behavior for SEGA, another monumentally stupid decision based off all the wrong motivation and market research.