Angry Birds Debit Cards To Be Issued In Russia

 

Russian fans of the videogame Angry Birds will soon be able to get special debit cards – or "Angry Cards" – giving them discounts on the game's products.

Moscow-based Promsvyazbank said Tuesday it will start issuing the new MasterCards on June 4. They will be printed with images of the various characters and will give users a 10 percent discount on all Angry Birds-branded products.

Besides debit cards, the bank will also issue Angry Bird cash cards, which users top up with money. The bank will pay a 4 percent annual interest rate on the card's balance.

The maker of Angry Birds, Rovio Entertainment, has already launched toys and baby clothes lines featuring Angry Birds characters. But the Russian debit card is going to be the first Angry Birds branded financial product. The videogame has been downloaded more than 10 million times in Russia.

Ivan Pyatkov, director for retail sales and technology at Promsvyazbank, told the Associated Press that the bank is planning an initial printing of 50,000 cards but hopes to issue twice as much by the end of the year.

The bank expects the card to help attract urbanites between 25 and 35 years of age with a monthly income of at least $1,000.

Pyatkov said the bank is receiving a large number of requests for Angry Birds cards following early reports in the Russian press.

"Some clients are demanding their Angry Birds cards right now – before the official launch," Pyatkov said.

Promsvyazbank will be launching the card in partnership with Internet Retail Solutions, Rovio's agent in Russia.

Promsvyazbank, ranked as Russia's 11th largest by the Interfax research center, is 74 percent-owned by two Russian tycoons, the Ananyev brothers. Commerzbank holds 14 percent in the lender via a subsidiary while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has a 12 percent stake.

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Android malware poses as Angry Birds Space game

Android malware authors have seized an opportunity to infect unsuspecting smartphone users with the launch of the latest addition to the immensely popular "Angry Birds" series of games.

SophosLabs recently encountered malware-infected editions of the "Angry Birds Space" game which have been placed in unofficial Android app stores. Please note: The version of "Angry Birds Space" in the official Android market (recently renamed "Google Play") is *not* affected.

The Trojan horse, which Sophos detects as Andr/KongFu-L, appears to be a fully-functional version of the popular smartphone game, but uses the GingerBreak exploit to gain root access to the device, and install malicious code.

The Trojan communicates with a remote website in an attempt to download and install further malware onto the compromised Android smartphone.

Interestingly, the malware hides its payload - in the form of two malicious ELF files - at the end of a JPG image file.

With the malware in place, cybercriminals can now send compromised Android devices instructions to download further code or push URLs to be displayed in the smartphone's browser.

Effectively, your Android phone is now part of a botnet, under the control of malicious hackers.

It feels like we have to keep reminding Android users to be on their guard against malware risks, and to be very careful - especially when downloading applications from unofficial Android markets.

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If Angry Birds were an 80s home computer game.

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Angry Birds Space rockets to the top of the App Store charts in over 28 countries

 

Only a few hours after its debut, Rovio’s Angry Birds Space has hit the top of the App Store charts in more than 28 countries.  Released last night at 1:00 am PST, or 10:00 am Helsinki time, Angry Birds Space costs $0.99 on iPhone and $2.99 on the iPad.

The game — which was highly anticipated thanks to a smart marketing campaign by Rovio that included a video from NASA actually filmed in space and a promotional campaign with WalMart — is the No. 1 paid and No. 1 top grossing app in dozens of countries including: the US, China, Germany, France, Indonesia, New Zealand, Russia, Columbia, Denmark, Norway, Mexico, India, Greece, Belgium, the UK, Spain and (no surprise here) Finland.

In Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland and Korea Angry Birds Space is the No. 1 paid iPhone and iPad app. The game is the No. 1 paid iPhone app and the No. 1 paid and top grossing iPad app in Australia, Hong Kong, Israel and the Czech Republic.  It’s also leading the paid and top grossing charts in some capacity in Bulgaria, Italy, Argentina and Sweden.

At time of writing, the game hadn’t yet registered on the U.S. Google Play charts, which tend to be slower to update due to the algorithm Google uses to determine chart rankings. On Android the game comes in both the standard $0.99 paid format and a free, ad supported version. Neither of the app’s pages had updated yet to show how many downloads they have received, but the free version has already amassed 6,048 reviews and 4.8 star rating.

The game is available in the Amazon Appstore with a free, ad-supported app, a $0.99 paid app, and a $2.99 Kindle Fire App. It’s also available in the Mac App Store for $4.99.

Rovio’s Angry Birds games have been downloaded more than 700 million times already, and its likely the series is now well on its way to cresting the 1 billion download mark.

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Angry Birds Space: NASA announcement

 

The FIRST ever game announcement and gameplay footage from space: http://angrybirds.com/space. Brought to you by NASA and Don Pettit from the ISS.

Angry Birds Space will be available from March 22

 

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Squawwk!

Take a look at the new Cherry Blossom levels!

 

Angry Birds Seasons: Cherry Blossom gameplay

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Angry Birds USB Slingshot

 

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'Angry Birds' blast off into 'Space'

 

Having conquered smartphones and tablets, the hit casual title Angry Birds ventures off to a new frontier: Space.

Studio Rovio has announced they will launch the game Angry Birds Space on March 22.

According to a blog post on Rovio's official website, Angry Birds Space is a "completely new game with innovative new gameplay, but with some of the familiar Angry Birds elements that fans already know and love."

The post says the game will launch "simultaneously in mobile gaming, animation, retail and publishing," but it does not provide details on which devices will support it.

Angry Birds Space already has an official website with an image of a slingshot on the Moon overlooking Earth.

With the game moving into space, it begs the question whether gravity will play a role in the physics-based game, which requires players to wipe out a group of enemy pigs by flinging birds with a slingshot.

And the shift in location seems appropriate considering its meteoric rise following launch in 2009 for Apple's iOS platform. Last November, Rovio revealed the franchise had crossed a half-billion downloads.

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Angry Birds coming to Facebook!

 

Angry Birds is now making friends on Facebook. 

After more than a year in development, the wildly popular game was supposed to make its debut on the social network tomorrow but was uncaged a day early.

Although the game is has long been available on a wide variety of mobile and desktop platforms, the Finnish game maker Rovio included features unique to the Facebook version, including power-ups intended to give users a leg up on the competition.

"There are four different types of power-ups and they can be accessed via the lightning bolt button at the top of the screen," the company said. "You can use two power-ups per level. All power-ups have a different effect but ultimately make you more competitive against your friends by making your birds stronger or more accurate or even by shaking the earth itself!"

The game is free to play on the social network at apps.facebook.com/angrybirds/, but the power-ups will cost players $1 for 20 uses.

The Facebook version takes advantages of Adobe Systems' Flash Player 11 with support for 3D graphics included, offering "enhanced special effects like lighting, smoke and explosions running smoothly at 60 frames per second," Adobe said in a statement.

The game, which is reportedly played by 130 million people daily, was expected to be available on Facebook last March. But Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka said Angry Birds would not be available on the social network until May--a target launch date the game developer missed by nine months. 

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Angry Birds in convenient bra form

 

From Etsy seller SceeneShoes comes the custom brassiere pictured above, which Technabob has dubbed "Angry Boobs." Featuring the red bird and a pig from Angry Birds, giving this US$35 creation as a gift will probably inspire either laughter or thrown objects, depending on how good a sport your significant other is.

The bra is available in sizes from 34A to 38DD; if you ask me, SceeneShoes missed an opportunity by not using different birds for different cup sizes. And now the next time I see my wife I'm going to be hearing a high-pitched "Wheeeeee!" in my head, so thanks for that, SceeneShoes.

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Angry Birds boss: 'Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business'

Rovio is considering working with music companies on in-app partnerships for Angry Birds

Rovio Mobile learned from the music industry's mistakes when deciding how to deal with piracy of its Angry Birds games and merchandise, chief executive Mikael Hed told the Midem conference in Cannes this morning.

"We have some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products. There is tons and tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products," said Hed.

"We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy."

Hed explained that Rovio sees it as "futile" to pursue pirates through the courts, except in cases where it feels the products they are selling are harmful to the Angry Birds brand, or ripping off its fans.

When that's not the case, Rovio sees it as a way to attract more fans, even if it is not making money from the products. "Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day."

According to Hed, Rovio has taken some more positive lessons from the music industry, including how it sees its customers.

"We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have," he said.

"If we lose that fanbase, our business is done, but if we can grow that fanbase, our business will grow."

It seems there may be more partnerships between Angry Birds and music artists in the future, too. Hed explained that Rovio sees Angry Birds as a bona-fide "channel" now, with people spending so much time in the app, it is competing with the most popular TV shows in the US in terms of time spent.

"Already our apps are becoming channels, and we can use that channel to cross-promote – to sell further content," he said. "The content itself has transformed into the channel, and the traditional distribution channels are no longer the kingmakers."

Rovio hasn't worked with music companies or artists yet, although that is happening elsewhere in the games industry. Social games company Zynga, for example, has run promotions with Lady Gaga and Michael Buble in its Facebook games.

"We have some discussions with labels about what we could do together to give access," Hed told the Midem audience.

"It is possible to promote music content through our apps as well... We are positively looking for new partnerships, and we have a rather big team working on partnerships, so it's just a case of getting in touch with us and we'll take it from there"

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Angry Birds Coming to Facebook on Valentine’s Day

 

Peter Vesterbacka, the ‘Mighty Eagle’ of Rovio, and Henri Holm, the SVP of Rovio Asia, shared the company’s plan to release Angry Birds to more than 800 million people on Facebook. And what’s more, the company is planning its big launch to be held in Jakarta on February 14th. Why Jakarta? Well it’s obvious, Peter says, as Jakarta is the global capital of Facebook. Holding the launch here would be appropriate as it is a major Facebook hub.

Angry Birds has become a phenomenon in such a short time, and Rovio has been busy building the brand on top of the already successful game title. Now with over 700 million downloads (on its way to pass 1 billion this year) Rovio is becoming an entertainment company which will make comics, animations (it has acquired an animation company), and even plush toys to complete a full circle of online-offline engagement. With this, Rovio aims to have 1 billion fans instead of just 1 billion downloads

The Next Billion

While it has been the must-have game on iOS and Android phones or tablets, Rovio wants Angry Birds on every screen. They want it on every possible platform. To make this possible they’ve also worked with Samsung so that Angry Birds will be pre-installed on every new Smart TV and the 2010 and 2011 versions of the TV sets will get an update that will install Angry Birds. Not only that, they are bringing the Angry Birds experience to the next billion by reaching the feature phone market (working together with Nokia on its Asha series). In the near future, Rovio is also working to bring a seamless and connected experience through any platform you play Angry Birds on. For example, if you start playing Angry Birds on your iPad, you can continue your progress on your Samsung TV or on a PC in an internet cafe.

Angry Birds Power-Ups

So what’s so special about bringing Angry Birds to Facebook? Shown for the first time to the world outside their labs, Peter brings us through the Angry Birds experience on Facebook, showing its full screen capability and higher quality animation to maximize your playing experience. Rovio will also introduce new power-ups (e.g. an earthquake; or special, bigger, or stronger birds) which you can buy (for US$0.99) or earn while playing the game. Peter said that Rovio won’t introduce a product unless it’s a great one, and claims that 40 percent of users are actually interested in buying the power-ups, in contrast to just 3 to 4 percent in most other games.

Sociable Birds?

The next feature (and perhaps an obvious one) is social. Angry Birds on Facebook will have leaderboards so people can try to beat each other scores by buying power-ups to earn ‘bragging rights.’ When asked about the payment system in Indonesia, Peter said that rather than moaning about how they can’t make money because of it, they are bringing a solution to that problem.

Rovio also plans to release more games than it did last year (it released the Rio and Seasons variants in 2011) including making a more localized game with local content. Rovio released a Year of the Dragon update to Angry Birds Seasons for the Chinese New Year where it has a new theme, animations, and of course, a swooping dragon as a ‘power-up.’ The team is planning to do something like this in Indonesia, and that’s another part of the reason for the visit here. The forthcoming game will include local content such as Batik, Garuda, or even Komodo so that it has a more local touch filled with Indonesian cultural references. This looks set to be a separate, new Angry Birds game, and not just an update to Seasons.

Rovio also plans to recruit an intern by holding a game developer competition in Indonesia. The winner will earn an internship for a month to get to know how Rovio works – and in return, he or she can make a contribution to this localized version of Angry Birds. Rovio, though, is dismissing rumors that there’s any plan to have an office here – but it will have several local partners for the brand.

Angry Birds for Facebook will be released on February 14, 2012 worldwide, and as we heard from the Mighty Eagle himself, it will be launched in Jakarta. We encourage our readers not to get too carried away playing the game that you forget your normal Valentine’s Day responsibilities. Angry Birds are one thing, but angry girlfriends are a different game altogether.

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Celebrate the Year of the Dragon! "Angry Birds: New Year Edition"

 

We know that the "angry bird" will launch with a variety of festive season corresponding version.In order to meet the arrival of Year of the Dragon, Rovio has the players to bring the dragon Chinese New Year Edition "angry bird", the game currently logged iOS and Android platform."Angry Birds: Spring Festival Edition" introduces a Chinese knot, firecrackers, red envelopes and other Chinese elements. Among them, the original version of the Eagle would be the cultural symbols of China's most mysterious "dragon," which form a "mighty dragon Dragon," the new image.

In addition, the original melody of the game will become dynamic charm of Chinese music, let the world feel the charm of Chinese culture. Of course, the biggest change is the image of some birds, with the ancient Chinese folk art "shadow" a combination, so that birds can plug in "Chinese style" wings.

Note that the "angry bird: Spring Festival Edition" iPhone version is priced at $ 6, and the iPad version is priced at 12 yuan.

"Angry Birds: Spring Festival Edition" iPhone version Download: http://itunes.apple.com/cn/app/angry-birds-seasons/id398157641

iPad version of Download:http://itunes.apple.com/cn/app/angry-birds-seasons-hd/id398329664

"Angry Birds: Spring Festival Edition" Android Download:http://www.yingyong.so/app/0/82.htm

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Angry bird will join the Chinese Year of the Dragon element

As a fun little game full of angry birds can be described as popular in the world, the Rovio manufacturers always try to put new elements into the game, and soon, the game will add Chinese elements. Recently, news that angry bird seasons will join a series of special edition holiday theme, this is our country and the upcoming Year of the Dragon, propaganda is called "Year Of Dragon" (Dragon).

 

Angry bird "Dragon" in the New Year - January 20 release, currently we do not know the specific content of the new game, but according to the current promotional video, the story seems to be "evil" pigs is to be steal the dragon eggs.

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Angry Birds -

Gingerbread house - 

Time lapse

 

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25,000 Christmas Lights Show Angry Birds Theme Song

 

What do you get when you take Angry Birds, the hottest mobile game ever, and combine it with the musical talent of Pomplamoose? You get 25,000 Christmas lights pumping to the Angry Bird Theme song covered by Pomplamoose.

 

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Angry Birds UK activity park to launch in 2012

 

The first Angry Birds activity parks are going to launch next year, featuring slides and rope swings based on the hugely popular app. 

Having already made a fortune out of a merchandise range featuring the games’ popular characters, such as soft toys and jumpers, there will now be a series of Angry Birds-themed parks around the world.

Rovio, Angry Birds’s Finnish parent company, has just signed a global deal with activity park manufacturer Lappset Group, which has already started creating themed swings, slides and towers.

The first two parks will open in Finland next year, while several others are expected to launch in the UK. However, the locations and timings of the British parks have yet to be decided.

“The activity parks tie in perfectly with the Angry Birds world and our way of thinking,” said Rovio’s Mighty Eagle, chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka – whose wife was recently spotted sporting an Angry Bird-themed dress to a party.

“We will be developing a service which brings together the digital world and the physical world in a way that’s never been seen before. The popularity of Angry Birds isn’t restricted to any age, sex or social group, and the activity parks will be designed to be interesting places for absolutely everyone, all around the world.”

The Angry Birds park range includes animal spring riders, swings, sandpits and a range of climbing towers with slides. Familiar characters and colours from the mobile game are incorporated into the activity park equipment. The range also includes an Angry Birds arcade game that can be played outdoors in the park.

The latest Apple App Store figures showed that Angry Birds was the most popular paid-for app during 2011 and two of its spin-offs - Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio - also featured in the top 10.

The hugely popular mobile phone game, is played by 30 million people every day for a total of 300 million minutes.

The 300 million total minutes clocked up each day represents the equivalent of a single gamer spending more than 570 years playing Angry Birds. The game involves catapulting destructive birds at pigs hidden in a series of fortresses.

Andrew Stalbow, Rovio’s American chief, confirmed to The Telegraph earlier this year that the hotly anticipated Angry Birds movie is slated for release in 2014, after a series of themed cartoons make their debut.

“We are now working on creating a cartoon series of the games for early next year. They will only be short, between two to three minutes in length – but we are looking at working with a network provider to get them to go out on television as well as online,” he said.

Rovio recently acquired an animation studio in Finland to make the cartoons. However, Stalbow revealed no decisions have been taken as to how or where the movie will be made.

He said the company “had a real shot of growing the business to be a huge entertainment company” and that it would move beyond the Angry Birds game in due course.

The company’s second largest market after the US is now China, where both the game and merchandise such as toys and jumpers are hugely popular. 

 

 

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Angry Birds Opens a Chicken Coop: Rovio to Open First Brick and Mortar Shop in China and Bootleg the Bootleggers

 

The company's crafty strategy to fight bootlegged Chinese merchandise will soon be launched, and they might go public after that.

Apparently, The People’s Republic of China is totally, completely, batshit crazy for Angry Birds, as indicated by gamemaker Rovio’s moves they’re making there.

We’re not talking the kind of Angry Birds craziness that exists in America, where people attend to the slingshot-weaponry of pissy, overweight birds at every possible moment whether opportune or not. Angry Birds is—according to the Finland-based gamemaker Rovio—one of the most copied/bootlegged brands in China, whose growing middle class is just sitting there, slinging birds, waiting for their incomes to be exploited for conspicuous consumption like the rest of the Western World. Enter—in the immortal words of Mel Brooks— merchandising, merchandising, merchandising.

Via Bloomberg, Rovio is opening their first store in China, where the brand is growing the fastest:

The company aims to hit $100 million in retail sales in China in the first year of store operations, Chief Marketing Officer Peter Vesterbacka said at the Techcrunch conference in Beijing today. He didn’t provide possible locations or say how many outlets the Espoo, Finland-based company plans to open.

Not only are they selling official gear, but via the Bloomberg report, they’ll be taking inspiration from bootlegged merchandise as ideas for official merch! Way to turn bad business on its back, Rovio, who gets pegged at selling “over a million units a month” of merch which makes up “10 to 20 percent” of their business.

Peter Vesterbacka, chief marketing officer and co-founder of Rovio Entertainment Oy, speaks during the TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing conference in Beijing, China.

The most compelling piece of the item, however, is when Rovio places their own worth at “probably worth more than” $1B. Even more:

The “insanely profitable” company may sell shares to the public as early as next year…

The company aims to hit $100 million in retail sales in China in the first year of store operations, Chief Marketing Officer Peter Vesterbacka said at the Techcrunch conference in Beijing today. He didn’t provide possible locations or say how many outlets the Espoo, Finland-based company plans to open.

“Angry Birds” has multiple game versions in which players use a virtual slingshot to fire birds at structures populated by green pigs. Rovio currently sells merchandise including stuffed toys, flip-flops and Halloween costumes through its online store.

“China is our fastest-growing market, so we are taking it very seriously,” Vesterbacka said. “We want to be more Chinese than the Chinese companies.”

The company is tailoring games to appeal to the local market, such as the recent “Moon Festival” version timed for the Mid-Autumn celebration last month, Vesterbacka said.

“Angry Birds” is the most-copied brand in China, the executive said. The company is taking inspiration from pirate merchandise, including mylar balloons featuring unlicensed characters from the game, for ideas on products to introduce, Vesterbacka said.

Merchandise makes up 10 percent to 20 percent of the business, and stuffed toys are selling a million units a month, Vesterbacka said in a Bloomberg Television interview this month. The “insanely profitable” company may sell shares to the public as early as next year and is probably worth more than $1 billion, he said at the time. 

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'Angry Birds:

the Movie' is confirmed as game hits 400 million downloads

Game played for 300 million minutes per day worldwide

New bird to launch in game 'before Halloween'

Teaser image on Rovio's Facebook page

 Angry Birds maker Rovio - who made 51 failed games before 

their hit - are now estimated to be worth $1.2 billion

Game creator Rovio confirmed that a film of the iPhone hit Angry Birds IS in development, as it announced that 400 million people had downloaded the game.

Rovio said that a new bird will be launched in-game for Halloween - and even offered what might be a sneak peek of the creature.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, Rovio also said that Angry Birds is being played for 300 million minutes per day worldwide.

The film, to be produced in conjunction with Marvel - will explore the 'emotional connection' gamers have with Angry Birds, a Marvel executive told Hollywood trade magazine Variety this year.

No stars are yet attached to the project.

Game maker Rovio had made 50 failed games before iPhone hit Angry Birds - but having sold 350 million copies of the 59p game, the company also sells a million Angry Birds toys and a million T-shirts every month.

So far, Rovio has yet to spend a single penny on marketing or advertising, reports TechCrunch.

A recent survey estimated that Britain's economy lost more than £800 million a year to games played on smartphones such as iPhone at work.

 Not content with selling 350 million copies of the game Angry Birds, makers Rovio now sell one million cuddly toys a month - and a million T-shirts

In the game, players use catapults to fire infuriated birds at pigs hiding inside buildings made of planks.

'Gaming has gone mainstream with Angry Birds,' says Stuart Miles, founder of Britain's biggest independent gadget site Pocket Lint, 'Everybody from my three year old son to my granny can play these games. It's breaking down the barriers - gaming is no longer just something for spotty teenagers.'

Other proposed spin-offs include an Angry Birds cookbook - featuring eggs, which are dropped by some of the game's characters. 

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Angry Birds movie trailer

An Angry Birds movie is in the works, and we have an exclusive behind-the-scenes look! Will you see it when it comes out...or are you too busy playing Angry Birds?

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