What's next for Angry Birds publisher Rovio?
Rovio's new general manager of North America sidesteps that question at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, while touting the success of the game and all its offshoots.
SAN FRANCISCO--At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference here today, Angry Birds publisher Rovio's new general manager of North America danced around the big question on Rovio's future growth. That question: What can Rovio do other than extend on Angry Birds?
During an onstage interview, Andrew Stalbow kept bringing the discussion back to the success of Angry Birds itself, and all its offshoots. He rattled off impressive stats: Angry Birds games get 300 million minutes of gameplay a day, and the company is selling a million T-shirts and a million plush toys a month.
But what's next for Rovio? "Hollywood is hot for this content," Stalbow said. "We're going to take what we did with [the movie] Rio to another level."
In other words, the company, probably wisely, is going to milk Angry Birds as long as it can. After that, Stalbow allows, the company may try to leverage the fact that "Rovio has created a really powerful distribution channel." He does point out that Amazon, rumored to be working on its own tablet, is "a really great partner," and he reminds us that there's still no Angry Birds game on Facebook. He said we should watch for something there soon.
"Wherever the fans are, we want to be," he concluded.