News

Rovio hooks up with Kunlun to make Angry Birds for China

Beyond localisation

Date Type Companies involved Size
February 18th, 2015 partnership Beijing Kunlun Tech Co., Ltd.
Rovio
Not disclosed
Rovio hooks up with Kunlun to make Angry Birds for China

China has always been an important market for Angry Birds.

And now it's getting its own bespoke version of the game.

Rovio has announced it's signed a deal with Chinese publisher Kunlun (SHE:300418) that will see Angry Birds games specifically developed for the market.

Previously Rovio had worked with Chinese companies to culturalise its games for China, but this is the first time the $4 billion mobile game market will have received different content to the rest of the world.

Audience first

"China is a massively important market and the mobile games industry is growing at a very significant pace," said Rovio CEO Pekka Rantala.

"Angry Birds has been downloaded close to half a billion times in China so forming a strategic partnership with Kunlun is an important step that helps Rovio establish an even stronger presence in China's game market with localized content."

It's not the first time a big western publisher has taken this approach, however.

For example, Disney's Where's My Mickey? became Where's My Xi Yiang Yiang? in China.

[source: Rovio]


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Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.