Fowl Play

How Angry Birds went from a cute game that saved a company to a bona fide brand

Early in 2009, programmers at Rovio Mobile Ltd. got together to brainstorm some new apps. The boutique studio located in Espoo, Finland, had already cranked out 51 games in its six-year history. None had broken through. For a time, the specter of bankruptcy shadowed the door. Rovio needed a hit.

The designers cycled through the predictable lot of proposals, but one really stood out. “[It was] a bunch of angry-looking bird characters,” recalls franchise development vp Ville Heijari.

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