Rovio Entertainment Corporation
is a Finnish multimedia company with roots in mobile game development, founded in 2003 by Helsinki University of Technology students Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen and Kim Dikert. The company is best known for creating the Angry Birds franchise, though it has other titles to its name such as Small Town Murders, Love Rocks Starring Shakira and Nibblers.
Rovio traces its origins to the Finnish demoscene, where it was founded as Relude in 2003 by the aforementioned three students during a mobile game development competition at the Assembly demo party. The trio won with their title King of the Cabbage World, which was sold to Sumea and renamed Mole War. In 2005 the company received its first angel investor and changed its name to Rovio Mobile ("rovio" meaning "bonfire" or "pyre" in Finnish). Rovio had made 51 games and was nearing bankruptcy by the time their 52nd title, Angry Birds, became a Sleeper Hit following its release in 2009 and reversed the company's fortunes.
Since The New '10s, Rovio has been branching out beyond mobile games, starting with the development of The Angry Birds Movie in 2011, coinciding with the company swapping out the "Mobile" suffix of its name for "Entertainment". The Angry Birds Movie released in 2016 and grossed $352.3 million worldwide, saving a struggling Rovio from a second bankruptcy. A sequel released in 2019, making $152.8 million worldwide and getting improved reviews. In 2013, Rovio released its first animated series, Angry Birds Toons and began a streaming channel, ToonsTV, which was active from 2013 to 2017. During its brief life, ToonsTV also hosted Angry Birds Stella, Piggy Tales and Angry Birds Blues, as well as third-party content such as Zig & Sharko, Morph and Chakra: The Invincible. The first long-form Angry Birds animation, Angry Birds: Summer Madness, premiered on Netflix in 2022. On April 17, 2023 it was announced that Sega would buy Rovio, the acquisition was completed on August 18th of that year.
Games developed by Rovio:
Angry Birds franchise
See the franchise page for the full list, which is too exhaustive to list here.
Other games
- Mole War (2004)
- Paid to Kill (2004)
- War Diary series (2005)
- War Diary: Burma
- War Diary: Crusader
- War Diary: Torpedo
- Formula GP Racing (2005)
- Playman Winter Games (2005)
- Darkest Fear series (2005-2006)
- Darkest Fear (2005, ported to iOS in 2009)
- Darkest Fear 2: Grim Oak (2006)
- Darkest Fear 3: Nightmare (2006)
- US Marine Corps Scout Sniper (2006)
- Wolf Moon (2006)
- Desert Sniper (2006)
- Cyber Blood (2006)
- Need for Speed: Carbon (2006)
- Patron Angel (2007)
- Star Marine (2007)
- Dragon & Jade (2007)
- Sumea Ski Jump (2007)
- Marine Sniper (2007)
- Shopping Madness (2007)
- Burnout (2007)
- Totomi (2008)
- SWAT Elite Troops (2008)
- Paper Planes (2008)
- Burger Rush (2008)
- Collapse Chaos (2008)
- X Factor 2008 (2008)
- Gem Drop Deluxe (2008)
- Bounce series (2008-2009)
- Bounce Tales (2008)
- Bounce Touch (2008)
- Bounce Boing Voyage (2008)
- Bounce Evolution (2009)
- Space Impact: Meteor Shield (2010)
- Amazing Alex (2012)
- The Croods (2013)
- Selfie Slam (2014)
- Retry (2015)
- Nibblers (2015)
- Love Rocks Starring Shakira (2015)
- Battle Bay (2017)
- Sugar Blast (2019)
- Small Town Murders (2020)
Television series:
- Angry Birds Toons (2013-2016)
- Piggy Tales (2014-2019)
- Angry Birds Stella (2014-2016)
- Angry Birds Blues (2017)
- Angry Birds BirLd Cup (2018)
- Angry Birds Zero Gravity (2018)
- Angry Birds on the Run (2018–2020)
- Angry Birds MakerSpace (2019–present)
- Angry Birds Slingshot Stories (2020-2022)
- Angry Birds Bubble Trouble (2020–present)
- Angry Birds: Summer Madness (2022–present)
- Angry Birds Mystery Island (TBA)
Movies:
- The Angry Birds Movie (2016)
- The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019)
