Rovio yesterday announced it would be culling its workforce by a total of 110 employees.
The Finnish mobile game maker revealed it would be shutting down its Tampere, Finland game studio.
The lay-offs were originally outed back in October, when it was expected that Rovio would lay off 130 staff – 20 employees got lucky post-consultation, it seems.
Rovio is the firm behind app store hit Angry Birds, having overseen a raft of sequels since the original title launched to critical acclaim back in 2009.
Despite the Angry Birds success, it was actually Rovio’s 52nd game and marked years of effort since the firm’s 2003 launch, known at the time as Relude.
While the franchise has seen some high-profile additions to its series like Angry Birds Star Wars and Angry Birds Rio, the growth is reportedly not as strong as expected.
The company also brings in cash from merchandise like toys and clothing, as well as a television series.
There’s also an Angry Birds movie in the works for 2016, due to be animated and distributed by Sony.
Despite this, it appears Rovio is struggling to make ends meet with its game output and is now forced to cut back in light of increased competition on the app store.
Operating profits for Rovio reportedly halved to £28.7 million last year due to poor investment and a slow-down in game sales.
Angry Birds has been the most downloaded freemium game series of all time, and boasts 2 billion downloads across all available platforms.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
