Despite being a privately-owned company, Finnish entertainment outfit Rovio has announced its financials for 2014.
As expected, sales were down.
Compared to 2013, 2014's sales were down 9 percent to $192 million (€158 million).
The reason for the decline was the collapse in Angry Birds' merchandising; sales were down 43 percent.
However, games revenues rose 16 percent to $134 million (€111 million).
Operating earnings were down 72 percent to $12 million.
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Focusing on the positives, Rovio pointed out that it had launched six new games during 2014, including its first free-to-play titles.
It also continues to generate a vast number of game downloads - 600 million in 2014 alone - and remains in the top 10 mobile publishers in the world on the basis of downloads.
"2014 results show that steps in the game portfolio, free to play competency building and advertising are going in the right direction. I am confident that with new simplified organisation and clearer vision, we will be back to the path of growth in 2015" commented new CEO Pekka Rantala.
One area that Rovio is looking to expand in 2015 is Asia. It's recently signed deals with Kunlun and Alibaba to release Angry Birds games in China.
The company is also hoping its May 2016 Angry Birds feature film will reinvigorate its merchandising business in the medium term.
[source: Rovio]
