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Sega has agreed to acquire Rovio, the maker of the popular video game Angry Birds.
The games featuring Angry Birds have gained immense popularity over the last decade.
In a groundbreaking agreement, the developers of the popular Angry Birds video game franchise have accepted a proposal from the Japanese gaming corporation that created the Sonic the Hedgehog games, to be acquired.
Finland-based Rovio Entertainment is being acquired by Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings for €706m (£625m). Rovio has claimed that its Angry Birds game was the first mobile game to achieve one billion downloads, and the brand has also created two Angry Birds films.
Sega is looking to utilize Rovio’s knowledge and skills in mobile gaming. In the previous year, Rovio declared that it had achieved a total of five billion downloads across all its games, and it operates eight game studios around the world with approximately 550 employees.
Sega declared their procurement of Rovio to reinforce their position in the global gaming market. According to their estimates, the gaming industry is projected to reach a staggering $263.3 billion by 2026, and mobile gaming is likely to represent 56% of the entire industry.
One of Sega’s main objectives in acquiring Rovio is to utilize the company’s expertise in operating live service mobile games to enhance the global reach of their existing and upcoming titles.
Rovio’s mobile gaming platform, Beacon, was of great importance to the company, as they highlighted the platform’s 20 years of success in providing live service mobile games in the US and Europe. As a result, they plan to utilize their expertise to deliver their own games to the global mobile gaming industry.
The chief executive of Sega Sammy Holdings, Haruki Satomi, stated that the mobile gaming market has high potential in the rapidly expanding global gaming market. He added that it had been Sega’s long-term objective to accelerate its expansion in this area.
Edward James also commented that Rovio’s Beacon mobile gaming platform would be highly advantageous for Sega.
Edward James, the analyst at Berenberg, noted that due to the long-lasting popularity of the Angry Birds franchise, the wealth of information and expertise held by the Beacon platform is an immensely valuable asset for Sega. He added that it would be challenging for the company to replicate the Beacon platform’s capabilities from the ground up within a reasonable timeframe.
The multinational corporation Sega Sammy was established through the merging of Japanese video game company Sega and Sammy Corporation in 2004.