Rovio Plans Job Reductions
Rovio Entertainment, the creator of "Angry Birds" - the top paid mobile app of all time, - begin employee negotiations on up to 260 redundancies in effort to "restructure and concentrate its activities" on games, media and consumer products. The last few years has seen a strong slate of games including the recent Angry Birds 2 offering that sold like the proverbial hot cakes. However, translating players into profits has been more challenging.
It has also dipped its toe in the toys-to-life territory of Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions with its range of Telepod powered titles like Angry Birds Go! That there hasn’t been a toy supported game for some while, with Angry Birds Transformers not including Telepods, may signal the lack of pickup on this at retail.
Rovio stated that "negotiations apply to the whole organization, excluding those working on the production of the The Angry Birds Movie in the United States and Canada."
The company is pinning its hopes on an Angry Birds 3D movie, due for release in May 2016 and which the company believes will yield new licensing deals.