Any doubts that the Angry Birds have been knocked off their perch have been silenced by the Finnish company moving to cut a third of its staff and cease some of its more outlandish merchandising.
Rovio, the company behind the game, was one of the early successes of smartphone gaming, yet Angry Birds has been in decline since 2013 when a new breed of game emerged in the form of Candy Crush Saga, made by King Digital, and Clash of Clans, developed by Supercell, another Finnish company.
Those titles proved far more addictive, and lucrative, than Angry Birds, which has struggled to keep up. King and Supercell have spent huge amounts marketing the games to keep consumers interested, a strategy adopted by Machine Zone of California, which has plastered Twitter and TV screens with advertisements for its Game of War product.
Angry Birds Stella, released last year, and Angry Birds 2 have not had the same impact and Rovio, which shed 130 jobs last year, is to cut 260 more, 230 in Finland, where Microsoft confirmed it would cut 2,300 former Nokia jobs.
Rovio’s eggs are now in Hollywood’s basket. A 3-D Angry Birds film is due out next year, with hopes that success at the box office will revive interest in its games.