Despite being one of the most iconic gaming brands out there, Rovio, the creator of Angry Birds has now announced job cuts in the face of new losses.
When recommending a game to someone on a mobile device, ‘Angry Birds’ is one of the first titles that springs to mind. With the simple gameplay mechanic of firing different shaped birds at menacing, armoured-up pigs, Angry Birds has been both a critical and a sales hit.
And from the very first Angry Birds game, creator Rovio has developed the franchise into something more. There have been a handful of Angry Birds spin-offs including a Star Wars version, a kart racer called Angry Birds GO!, an animated television series and a collectible line of plush toys as Rovio have attempted to capitalise on the initial game’s success.
Sadly though, this has not entirely gone to plan. Despite their best attempts at building the brand, lower than expected growth means that Rovio is now having to cut a massive chunk of its work force.
Rovio initially announced plans to cut 130 jobs back in October, 2014, citing a lack of growth in the business. That announcement led to 110 job losses in December, which amounts to around 14% of its workforce being shoved into unemployment. A Finnish studio will be shut down (following talks with employees) and Finnish operations at its headquarters in Espoo will reportedly be ‘consolidated’ which essentially means that workflow will be shuffled around and such to make the business more efficient.
As sad as this may be, Rovio’s failure is a result of them not being able to keep up with the market. Unfortunately, although Angry Birds is one of the most successful mobile franchises out there, it has paved the way for mighty competitors such as Candy Crush Saga (and King’s various ‘Saga’ games), Clash of Clans and even Kim Kardashian Hollywood. In contrast, the only post-Angry Birds game from Rovio to really garner any attention is the Flappy Bird-esque Retry.
Worse still is that the company’s operating profit in 2013 was halved to 36.5 million euros (28.7 million pounds) because of investments and poor sales so unless Rovio can reinvigorate the AB brand or come up with another hit, this latest round of job cuts could very well signal the beginning of the end.
Source: Recode
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