Finnish game development studio Rovio is set to open a studio in London to generate new and exciting multiplayer games aside from their tent-pole Angry Birds franchise.
The move to expand and build a London studio is intriguing, considering a decrease in profits from the Angry Birds games.
However, Rovio saw a box office success with a Hollywood-backed animated film based on Angry Birds in 2015, grossing £280 million worldwide.
The studio is looking to capitalise on the financial success by forming a team of 20 developers in London to create “massively multiplayer online” (MMO) games.
Wilhelm Taht, Head of Games, said: “MMO is a genre that is growing in mobile, but it is not fully saturated. We are not looking for a niche position, but a very wide, inclusive game.”
“In the long term, our new characters may generate intellectual property and even a brand,” Taht says.
The hope is to create stories and characters that would form a franchise that can spread across many mediums, properties and games, much like Angry Birds.
The Angry Birds game still remains the top paid mobile game of all time despite being released in 2009. It has spawned spin-off games, console versions and even crossed over with other popular franchises.
Rovio is hoping that its London studio will spawn characters that are as successful if not more so than the Angry Birds franchise.
Taht also expressed interest in exploring Augmented Reality (AR) games following the success of Nintendo’s smash-hit game Pokemon GO. “We will, of course, be following AR as a technology and a tool,” he said.