Angry Birds, Flocking to Cellphones Everywhere
By JENNA WORTHAM December 11, 2010
It sounds like a tough sell: a game that involves catapulting birds at elaborate fortresses constructed by evil pigs.
But Angry Birds, a hit game by Rovio, a small Finnish company, is one of the unlikeliest pop-culture crazes of the year - and perhaps the first to make the leap from cellphone screens to the mainstream.
Angry Birds, in which the birds seek revenge on the egg-stealing pigs, is meant to be easily played in the checkout line and during other short windows of downtime - but some players have trouble stopping. Rovio says people around the world rack up 200 million minutes of game play each day. (Put another way, that is 16 human-years of bird-throwing every hour.)
The game has inspired parodies, homages and fervent testimonials. Homemade Angry Birds costumes were big hits on Halloween. Conan O'Brien demonstrated the game in a YouTube video promoting his new show, and a sketch from an Israeli TV show about a birds-and-pigs peace treaty was popular online. Justin Bieber and other celebrities have professed their love of Angry Birds on social networks.
Games like Angry Birds are reaching a wide audience of players who might never consider buying an Xbox or PlayStation, but are now carrying sophisticated game machines in their pockets - smartphones. Software developers, eager to become the next Rovio, are creating so-called casual games for this crowd, games that are easy to learn and hard to stop playing.
The trajectory of Angry Birds also suggests a larger shift in entertainment and in the kinds of brands that can win wide popularity. And unlike many of the best-known console video games - like the classic Super Mario Bros. from Nintendo or the latest in the Call of Duty series, from Activision - cellphone games like Angry Birds are often made by small companies and catch on by word of mouth.
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