It feels like only yesterday that we were reporting yet another record breaking statistic related to Angry Birds (Free), such as the second main game of the series reaching 1 million downloads in the first twelve hours after release. Following such grandiose statements declaring intentions of being ‘bigger than Disney’ back in 2012, it seemed that the only trajectory Rovio would be flying was up. However, since then, these birds have crashed back down to reality. The extremely fast paced nature of game releases and trends on the App Store which originally gave Angry Birds its break has proven to be its demise, with releases such as Slither.io (Free), Minecraft ($6.99), Hearthstone (Free) and a plethora of other trends taking precedence and stealing the spotlight. Today Peter Vesterbacka, the outspoken and eccentric chief marketing officer of Rovio (or the ‘Mighty Eagle’ within the company) has left the developers to ‘pursue [his] startup dreams’, which will only lead to further speculation on the future of the Angry Birds series.
In a statement released by Rovio, Vesterbacka states how he will continue to be a shareholder of the company and continue to work closely with Chairman Kaj Hed, however will be attempting to get back to his ‘startup roots’ and try and teach his trade elsewhere. To attempt to dispel any negative connotations this may have on the state of his old company, Vesterbacka further elaborated in an interview with a Finnish newspaper that ‘there are no problems’ within Rovio. However, numerous job cuts and losses in 2015 suggest otherwise, despite the impressive commercial success of The Angry Birds Movie earning $327.7 million at box office even amidst mixed reviews from critics. Nonetheless, it’ll certainly be interesting to see if Vesterbacka manages to create another hit within the gaming industry, and the repercussions his resignation will have on Rovio and Angry Birds.
