Angry Birds is a game so addictive that everyone from David Cameron to Salman Rushdie admits to being hooked. Now, the mobile phone application, in which suicide-bombing birds are launched at green, egg-stealing pigs, wants to break out of the small screen.
Rovio, the Finnish company behind the title, announced yesterday that it will begin selling a range of “activity parks” in Britain. The company hopes that hundreds of adventure playgrounds will be built across the country, in which slides, roundabouts and climbing frames are themed around the Angry Birds characters and scenes.
To provide a further incentive for children (and their parents), visitors to the playgrounds would be given a “power up” in the game, with sensors in a customer’s mobile phone seeing when they have arrived at an activity park and instantly updating their game with bonus features. It is all part of a plan to turn Angry Birds into an entertainment franchise as all-conquering as Mickey Mouse or Super Mario.
At a press conference held at the London residence of Finland’s Ambassador to Britain, Rovio’s chief marketing officer, Peter Vesterbacka, said the aim was to encourage children addicted to the title to spend time outdoors. “The game is played by two-year-olds and their grandparents,” he said. “Hopefully, with these activity parks ... [they will] do a little exercise. We think we’ll see thousands of these across the planet.”
Pekka Huhtaniemi, the Finnish Ambassador, admitted he hadn’t played the game, but hailed its success. “We want to encourage the creative industries and technology in our country,” he said. “If Nokia could emerge from here, so can Angry Birds.”
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The first activity parks will be built in Finland in April, with more planned in China and Indonesia later this year. Lappset, the company which is building the park equipment, said it was in talks with companies and sites in Hampshire and West Sussex. It is hoped that shopping centres, amusement parks, local councils and other venue owners will buy and build the play areas.
The game has become a global hit since being released as an app on Apple’s iPhone two years ago. It has since been downloaded 700 million times and has gained huge followings in countries such as China, a market that internet companies have found difficult to crack. In China, Rovio has produced everything from cakes and trainers related to the game.
Mr Vesterbacka said the company’s goal was to have 1 billion “fans” of the game around the world.
Rovio said it had hired David Maisel, the Marvel Comics head who was the executive producer of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk , to work on creating the first Angry Birds films.
All this activity marks a remarkable rise for Rovio, which was on the edge of collapse in 2009 but last year was valued at more than $1.2 billion (£750 million).