SEGA is looking to close out a deal of acquiring the Angry Birds game developer Rovio to bolster its own mobile gaming competitiveness.
Angry Birds defined the generational push for mobile gaming as more consumers purchased smartphones—it was also the first mobile game to be downloaded one billion times. This is likely why SEGA hopes to secure an acquisition deal of the Finland-based Rovio Entertainment, with an estimated cost of €706 million ($776 million). The Sonic the Hedgehog game developer expressed their intentions that the purchase would help boost their competitive edge in the mobile gaming market.
While SEGA did not state if they would be making any changes to the Angry Birds game, they clearly stated they needed Rovio’s mobile gaming expertise. They said the market is projected to grow to $263.3 billion by 2026, with the percentage of mobile gaming expected to increase to 56%. Last year, the 550-employees-strong Rovio shared that across its eight-game studios, their games have reached about five billion downloads.
SEGA noted it would use Rovio’s “distinctive know-how in live service mobile game operation” to help bring its own current and new titles to the global mobile gaming market. One of the significant assets that SEGA could obtain is the mobile gaming platform Beacon, which it said had “20 years of high-level expertise in live service-mobile game operation” in the US and Europe.
Chief executive of SEGA Sammy Holdings, Haruki Satomi, shared his thoughts on SEGA’s expansion in the mobile gaming market and its potential future working with Rovio: “I feel blessed to be able to announce such a transaction with Rovio, a company that owns ‘Angry Birds,’ which is loved across the world, and home to many skilled employees that support the company’s industry-leading mobile game development and operating capabilities.”
SEGA has a history of buying studios. In 2005 it bought Total War developer Creative Assembly and, more recently, in 2013, it bought Persona maker Atlus. This takeover was said to be a friendly one as Rovio’s board of directors agreed with helping to support the pending purchase. SEGA projects they should be closing this deal by “the second quarter of FY2024”, which would be around the end of September mark. The takeover cost was lower than the projected $1 billion amount reported by the Wall Street Journal over the weekend.
Rovio has also had its share of making two Angry Birds films, and of course, SEGA did as well with two Sonic the Hedgehog movies that were fairly successful at the box office. While it may be a funny thought to think of a potential crossover between the two game universes, it could be a potential reality in the near future.
