Rovio

Rovio looks set to change its longtime formula for Angry Birds games. In a new website launched this week, Rovio teased a new game called Angry Birds Go! with a short Flash movie depicting one of its famous birds speeding down some sort of racetrack. From the looks of things, it seems that we’re about to get our first-ever Angry Birds racing game although Rovio hasn’t yet posted any specific details about how gameplay will work. In a company blog post, Rovio said that the game would be “Angry Birds, but not as you know it” and that “all your favorite characters are returning for a brand new title that will bring you closer to Piggy Island than ever before.” At the very least, the new game sounds more promising than Rovio’s Angry Birds Soda franchise that’s taken Finland by storm.

Rovio announced today it hit 263 million monthly active users in December 2012. This happened precisely three years after the first Angry Birds game debuted at the end of 2009. Incidentally, the somewhat better-known Twitter hit the 200 million monthly active user mark in December 2012. And since Twitter was launched in the summer of 2006, Rovio’s user growth has been notably brisker. More →

Rovio’s Angry Birds franchise has become the toast of Finland, replacing the troubled Nokia (NOK) as the company’s most distinguished brand. With this in mind, it’s not surprising that the Fins have a great deal of pride in their world-famous gaming company, so much so that they’ll even drink Angry Birds-branded soda. The Next Web reports that Rovio’s Angry Birds-branded soda “is said to be outselling Coke and Pepsi in Finland” and will soon hit the shelves in both New Zealand and Australia as well. Does the soda actually taste good? Who knows. But we do know that if it doesn’t, the cans will be super-fun to put in slingshots and launch at neighbors’ houses on Halloween.

Rovio’s not pulling any punches with its Angry Birds franchise. The next iteration featuring the enraged birds is Angry Birds Star Wars and it arrives November 8th. For the first time, Rovio is sharing gameplay footage of Angry Birds Star Wars. As you would expect from a Star Wars crossover, the trailer reveals a lightsaber-equipped Luke bird and a Princess Leia bird firing lasers at an AT-AT filled with Bad Piggies. Judging by the success of the previous Angry Birds Space game and the power of the Star Wars franchise, it’s practically a guaranteed Rovio has a hit on its hands. The trailer for Angry Birds Star Wars follows below.

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