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Rovio unveils third-party publishing initiative Rovio Stars

Aiming for quality over quantity

Rovio unveils third-party publishing initiative Rovio Stars

Back at the beginning of 2013, Rovio proved a number of persistent rumours true when it announced that it was moving into publishing.

Now, a mere five months after the announcement, Rovio Entertainment announced the launch of its highly anticipated publishing initiative, Rovio Stars.

Marking Rovio's first foray into integrating third-party titles into its game line-up, Rovio's director of development Kalle Kaivola explained the goal of Rovio Stars is to "help the developers to give these games that last coat of polish, publish the games, and find their audience."

Taking a viking to you

Because Rovio is carefully vetting the titles it chooses to publish under Rovio Stars, each game will receive special treatment and Rovio promises that each launch will be "an event of its own".

Curiously, however, the first title to launch under the Rovio Stars program will not be 5 Ant's Tiny Thief, although that's still in the docket for a future Rovio release.

Rather, Nitrome Ltd.'s ice-slicing puzzler Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage will be the first third-party title published by Rovio, an accolade that Nitrome's Mat Annal calls "all the backing that we [a small indie studio] could hope for."

Developers who are interested in Rovio Stars can find out more about the initiative over at Rovio's developer page.


US Correspondent

Representing the former colonies, Matt keeps the Pocket Gamer news feed updated when sleepy Europeans are sleeping. As a frustrated journalist, diehard gamer and recovering MMO addict, this is pretty much his dream job.