First announced by PocketGamer.biz back in July, Angry Birds' developer Rovio is continuing to consider a move into publishing.

It's been known for months that the Finnish outfit has been approaching indie developers with a view to signing up in-progress games that it will be able to promote to its massive community; Angry Birds' games have been downloaded more than 350 million times.

Rumours suggest, however, that it's attempting to strike hard nosed deals, which some prospective companies have rejected on commercial grounds.

Still, with more investment expected into the company, it seems likely that it will be able to create a significant warchest for content acquisition, even if entering a bidding war with its own one-time publisher, EA-backed publisher Chillingo.

Learning to fly

"We have some plans for this area, but not ready to announce yet," Rovio executive Peter Vesterbacka, told Develop, when asked about the subject.

"If we do something in the publishing area, you can expect it to be a bit different."

This could refer to building on current options such as thirdparties being able to include the Mighty Eagle in-app purchase within their games.

Rovio's dilemma is that it considers building the Angry Birds brand to be key to its $1+ billion valuation, so it doesn't want to dilute this by becoming just another publisher handling dozens of disparate titles, brands and characters.

[source: Develop]