United kingdom Daily news: Angry Birds maker plans to switch sides and let you play as one of the grunts

Angry Birds maker plans to switch sides and let you play as one of the grunts

By Eddie Wrenn

PUBLISHED: 05:31 EST, 6 July 2012 | UPDATED: 07:07 EST, 6 July 2012

After two years of playing as the avian equivalent of the Air Force, Angry Bird fans now get to play in the role of one of the grunts.

Mobile phone website Pocket Lint exclusively revealed today that Rovio, the creators of the huge franchise based on their hit mobile game, are planning to switch allegiances.

Now you will have the chance to give the pigs their revenge, a dish served cold with perhaps a slice of ham.

In the game, players have to launch birds with varying powers at green pigs, smashing through wood, glass or stone blocks to gain points

This battle has been one-sided for far too long: In the game, players have to launch birds with varying powers at green pigs, smashing through wood, glass or stone blocks to gain points

According to Pocket Lint, the idea of the new game will see you 'trying to protect the eggs you've grabbed from the birds, but still feature a catapult and the now famous wooden and stone structures'.

The website has seen images of the new game and 'hazards a guess' that players will launch pigs at the incoming birds, trying to take the angry avians down before they manage to steal their eggs back.

Rovio, originally founded in 2003, has been valued at up to Â£5.5 billion just over two years since it launched its first hit, Angry Birds for Apple's iPhone.

The company has about 300 staff, up from 50 a year ago, and has had to move out of central Helsinki to new, bigger headquarters next to mobile phone maker Nokia.

Angry Birds: This company is preparing itself and getting ready,Â¿ said Anders Lindeberg, Rovio's head of investor relations

Rovio reported 2011 sales of $99 million (Â£61.2 million) and is planning to float on the stock market.

It also reported a 64% profit margin for the year.Â Â

The game now has more than 200 million monthly users, and new versions include a Facebook version of the game, which is free, but earns money through paid-for extras.

Its Angry Birds Space game was downloaded more than 50 million times in 35 days since its launch in March. Â Â

Rovio is also expanding its brand to toys and playgrounds, and is taking the birds to the big screen.

The first full-motion animated movie featuring the characters is in works and the short animations are a YouTube hit. Â Â Â

Consumer products, which includes merchandising and licensing, generated around 30% of revenues last year, with the share higher in the fourth quarter, Hed said. Â Â Â

Rovio animation head Nick Dorra said: 'Angry Birds will, in the future, be less and less about the slingshot.'

He promised that the series will explore, 'Deeper thoughts, deeper feelings of the characters, such as why are they always angry?'

The Â£2.99 download is a relaunch for a game that has been downloaded 700 million times

Angry Birds has been downloaded 700 million times - and now the game will become a weekly TV series

An artists impression of what the Angry Birds themed activity parks planned for the UK could look like

Peter Vesterbacka, marketing chief of the Finnish start-up behind the world's most downloaded game said that Rovio, the makers of Angry Birds, sees itself as an entertainment brand, not just a games company.

'We want to make Angry Birds a permanent part of pop culture,' he said, comparing the brand to Nintendo's Mario and Sanrio's Hello Kitty. 'We're just getting started.'

Angry Birds, in which the player uses a slingshot to catapult birds to destroy green pigs hidden in fortresses, has been downloaded more than 700million times, and is the fastest-growing game on Facebook.

Rovio raised its profile hugely last year by hitching a game to the hit animated movie Rio, made by News Corp's 20th Century Fox, even burying a clue to the game in the movie studio's Super Bowl ad.