Angry Birds Star Wars

Luke Skywalker as an angry bird, Darth Vader as a grunting pig - the latest instalment in the franchise is playing Angry Birds in the "Star Wars" universe. This works surprisingly well. Long ago, the Finnish company Rovio has created out of the simple game idea into a global media brand.

There is no escape. Even at the night market of Johor Bahru in Malaysia not where grilled fish in banana leaves for the equivalent of a few euros is served and street vendors hawking more or less authentic handbags and wallets. At every corner you can find them: The protagonists of the mobile games Angry Birds.


The spherical birds and green pigs are hanging as plush figures at market stalls, they come in the form of backpacks and printed on T-shirts. Originally they populated only one gaming app: Three years ago, the first part of Angry Birds. The principle is simple. With a slingshot to shoot angry birds at pigs from residing on shaky constructions.

It became a worldwide hit, the Finnish company Rovio brought out sequels and special editions. Overall, more than one billion downloads include Rovio, every day people spend five million hours of Angry Birds. In Finland, there is now an amusement park, and a company sells sweet shower in the name of the game characters. For the U.S. magazine "Newsweek" it is simply " The Piggest Game Ever ".

Lightsabers and spaceships

Now the sixth part is appeared: Angry Birds Star Wars. The birds to swing lightsabers like Luke Skywalker, the pigs look like Stormtrooper, the upper pig wearing a Darth Vader mask. Besides the lovingly-detailed drawings from the series original sounds make for space-feeling: the screeching of the TIE Fighter, the hum of the light blade, the beeping of the robot R2D2.

The Stormtrooper pigs shoot now already times with laser cannons on the birds flying towards rebels. The need to fend off these attacks to continue their kamikaze approach successfully. From the rickety structures of the original game are here lazily drifting around in space with space station docked spacecraft and bodies of the Imperial Death Star.

Otherwise, of course, everything is as usual. So you find your way quickly, but even still maintain good if one has already invested several weeks in the previous life. Star Wars and Angry Birds, it actually fits well together. Time for Christmas, Rovio and Lucasfilm also bring a lot of merchandise on the market, such as a plush Skywalker as fat bird. With such products, Rovio makes around 40 percent of its revenue. May the purchasing power with the fans.


Magic formula with slingshot

Quite possible that Rovio has found a magic formula. When the company last year along with a Disney Angry Birds for the movie "Rio" published already, two weeks later, ten million downloads reported. The list could go on and on. Fans want for example a Simpsons Angry Birds - and Hollywood has even more powerful brands. How about Angry Jones? Or James Bird?

Before the successful birds Rovio has released no less than 51 games. None of them could even remotely stand as Angry Birds. Rovio has developed a game and a global media brand created . The title has since launched Bad Piggies and Amazing Alex were not able to build on the huge success, even though Bad Piggies were praised by critics for its greater complexity in part.

Therefore the business of running Angry Birds dazzling. The second largest market is China, where the proliferation of smartphones just zulegt rapidly. More than 150 million times the game has been downloaded there. For the country Rovio has specially incorporated Chinese culture elements into the app. Here are the products related to Angry Birds in the coming year are sold in hundreds of stores. In Shanghai, there are now an amusement park. Next year, Rovio could go public.

Next, an animated series start.