Angry Birds Halloween Sells a Million
It seems people just can't get enough of flinging birds at pigs, especially if those birds happen to be dressed up in Halloween costumes. Rovio has stated that the Halloween edition of Angry Birds has sold a million copies in just six days, one of the fastest trips to a million we've ever seen. The physics puzzle game is clearly far from dead on the iPhone.
Of course the massive success of Rovio's first post-Chillingo offering raises an interesting question, did EA buyout the wrong company? Though Chillingo published Angry Birds, all ownership rights remained with Rovio in light of the EA sale, and therefore the developer retained all rights for future expansions, sequels and spinoffs. Even though EA spent $20 million on Chillingo the deal didn't include the very game that made the publisher famous. The same is true for the recently released Cut the Rope, which, as far as we know, remains the property of ZeptoLab. Could it be that EA spent top dollar for an iPhone developer and then missed the forest for the trees? It would seem unlikely, but then again the world of developing and selling apps is still in its infancy, and no one truly understands the relationship between studios yet. Chillingo is undoubtedly working on titles of its own to publish under the EA banner, but can they live up to the successes set by earlier games?
In spite of all the drama surrounding EA and Chillingo we do want to congratulate Rovio on selling so many copies of Angry Birds Halloween so quickly. Truly one of the great success stories of the Wild West of app development.
[via CVG]