14 DAY TRIAL // Hit mobile game Angry Birds is now considered one of the most profitable games ever released and is expected to appear on Facebook around May.
Angry Birds, the mobile game phenomenon that captured a huge audience all over the world, spanning a wide variety of platforms, including the iOS or Android mobile operating systems, as well as PSP/PlayStation 3 and even PC/Mac platforms, is now considered one of the most profitable games in history.
This is at least according to Eedar analyst Jesse Dinvich, who said that with a development cost of around $140,000 and revenue of up to $70 million, plenty of people want to be in the shoes of Angry Birds developer Rovio.
"The $140k was the development costs and given the marketing and auxiliary products (plush toys), the actual cost to maintain and operate the Angry Birds brand is certainly higher, but still, it is fair to say that Angry Birds is by far one of the most profitable games in history, relative to costs."
Dinvich does admit that triple-A games like Call of Duty or World of Warcraft do produce more profit, but the investment in them was much, much higher, making Angry Birds that much more surprising.
The game's success shouldn't make it seem like getting profit on mobile platforms is easy, however.
"Angry Birds is an outlier and for every Angry Birds there are hundreds if not thousands that fail in the iOS environment. Of course, I am not attempting to subtract from Angry Birds' success, it succeeded against all odds and should be relished as a prime example of where our industry and consumer interest may be heading," Dinvich added, during his talk with Industry Gamers.
That success is set to grow even more in a few months from now, when Rovio intends to launch the Angry Birds game onto Facebook.
The company revealed that May is the intended target release date, but, if that doesn't happen, Facebook users will be able to play with the angry birds until summer.
More new features are set to be added to the game, but Rovio declined to say just what they might be.