Angry Birds developer Rovio revenue down 9% in 2014 as product tie-ins slump
Rovio Entertainment, the development studio behind Angry Birds, has announced a nine per cent drop in revenue in 2014, down to €158.3m.
The mobile gaming firm, at its 2014 earnings summit, blamed a decline in product licensing income for the slump but admitted that its games and media revenue grew by 16 per cent and 19 per cent to €110.7m and €6.2m respectively.
Games profit was driven by the launch of six titles in 2014, building upon Rovio's existing portfolio, with the company boasting 600 million game downloads that year.
Pekka Rantala, chief executive of Rovio, said: “2014 results show that steps in the game portfolio, free to play competency building and advertising are going in the right direction. I am confident that with new simplified organisation and clearer vision, we will be back to the path of growth in 2015.
“I feel very good about our 2015 games roadmap. Since the beginning of the year we have launched two games and our Asia expansion is also proceeding well. Angry Birds Fight will be our first game developed specifically for the world´s biggest game market, Japan. Furthermore, we have strong partnerships in China with Kunlun and Alibaba, and we are working with other partners in the region, including Korea."
Rantala concluded: "On the consumer product side, 2014 was not a satisfactory year. However, the upcoming Angry Birds movie (featuring featuring Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad and Peter Dinklage) is getting very positive reactions from major retail and license partners as well as from consumer focus groups. This will have a positive impact on licensing in the coming years."
This comes after the firm paired with Dundee-based Outplay Entertainment to expand the Angry Birds franchise with Stella Pop.