A couple of big games companies have initiated the process of preparing of IPO recently.

Neither PopCap - bought by EA - or Zynga - waiting for better market conditions - has managed to go public, though. The process is long, complex, and uncertain.

Feathering the nest

Still, that's not stopping Rovio reiterating its desire to make the most of the 350+ million downloads of Angry Birds games, plus the tens of millions of dollars it's generating monthly from merchandising, to float the company in the US.

But, as CMO Peter Vesterbacka was telling Bloomberg Television about a circa $1 billion deal, maybe a year from now, news is filtering through the mobile games community that user numbers on the original game have peaked.

As is the case in such speculation, no one's prepared to go on record, but sources close to the Rovio nest are saying the active daily user rate on the original iOS game is now declining fairly rapidly; losing more than tens of thousands of players per week.

The way of life

Of course, in some respects, this is no surprise as all games (like any other consumer product or service) will experience stages of growth, peak usage and then saturation and decline.

Despite the almost 300 available levels and regular updates (the most recent was August), Angry Birds is almost 2 years old, with the Seasons and Rio variants - as well as versions on other mobile platforms - now getting more of the developer's love.

Indeed, Rovio now claims 150 million active users across its entire portfolio, making this decline comparative minor. 

Still, it will be interesting to see how Rovio deals with this sort of speculation over the coming 12 months, especially as the company and its singular brand come under media scrutiny, with respect to the rationale behind its large valuation.