14 DAY TRIAL // Angry Birds is one of the biggest hits, in terms of units moved to player, in the world of video gaming, with its developer rightly picking up a number of end-of-year awards for the title and now Rovio says that the traditional business model linked to home-console gaming is now “dying”, making way for a new reality based on cheaper, simpler games.
Peter Vesterbacka, who is the chief executive officer of the company, has talked about Angry Birds and its future at the South by Southwest event and says that developers and publishers need to think about the value a player derives from paying 40 dollars for a home console or PC game which will not receive significant updates during its lifetime.
The CEO also said that Angry Birds should not be classed as a “casual game,” drawing a comparison with the movie industry and pointing that there are no casual firms.
Rovio operates under the idea that any video game can generate passion on the part of the player and will lead the gamer to engage and not just the ones that have high production costs and sell for 60 dollars.
Despite his claim that the existing console gaming business model is disappearing Vesterbacka says that mobile and social games do not yet have a reliable way of making money in the long term but, the Angry Birds developer says that the key is popularity.
So far Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 10 million times by gamers across all platforms, mainly the iPhone and Android phones.
The CEO also mentions experimentation as one of the keys to the mobile and social gaming space, with small teams having the flexibility to try out things knowing that the payoff for success is very good and the price for failure is limited.