What does Rovio have cooking for 2012?

There are plenty of rumours, but the news that the Helsinki-based developer is opening up another Finnish development location suggests its ambition stretches beyond merchandising deals and movies. 

As announced on the company's blog, the new studio is being set up in Tampere, which is the third largest city in Finland and 150 km north of the capital.

The place to be

It has a good reputation for game development, thanks to its universities and its Manse Games incubator program, which contains over 20 start ups.

It was also the location of THQ Wireless' internal studio Universomo, which was closed down in 2010. Yet it seems some of the old guard remain in the area as Rovio's local GM will be Atte Kotiranta, who was a Universomo co-founder.

No doubt, he will be tapping up ex-colleagues, while anyone else interested can check out the available positions - ranging from artists, programmers, game designers and level designers - via its jobs website.

[source: Rovio]