Rovio working on Angry Birds Space for WP -CEO
(Reuters) - Finnish gaming firm Rovio is working on getting its new Angry Birds Space game to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform (WP7), its chief executive said on Friday, dismissing earlier media reports which said the top gaming firm was dumping the platform.
Context & Ripple Effects
Rovio's Windows Phone relationship has been rocky since the start: back in October 2010 the developer publicly accused Microsoft of jumping the gun by listing Angry Birds before any deal existed, and by November that year there was still no WP7 version in sight. A formal commitment followed in February 2011, making yesterday's Bloomberg report — which framed the new title's absence as a blow to Nokia — read like a repeat of history.
The stakes were high because Angry Birds Space had just launched on March 22 across iOS, Android, PC and Mac from 99¢ and hit the top of the App Store charts in over 28 countries within hours. The CEO's Friday statement converts a 'skipped' narrative into a 'coming later' one — a distinction that matters enormously to how Microsoft's platform is perceived.
First-order effects
- Windows Phone 7 users learn they will eventually get the biggest mobile game launch of the season rather than missing it entirely, removing the single most damaging story about the platform this week.
- Microsoft and Nokia gain a public rebuttal to use against carriers and buyers who saw the Bloomberg piece as evidence the platform can't land marquee apps.
Second-order effects
- Nokia's handset sales pitch leans on flagship third-party apps being present at or near launch; every delayed port forces its retail and carrier partners to sell hardware with a visible gap in its app catalog.
- Other developers watch whether a delayed port sells enough on WP7 to justify the work — if headline titles arrive weeks late and underperform, the economics of supporting the platform weaken for smaller studios with no marketing budget to spare.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — iOS/Android day-one, everything else whenever — app availability becomes a lagging indicator that reinforces the two-horse smartphone market, since each late arrival makes the third platform look less viable to the next developer deciding where to spend engineering time.
- Platform holders' fortunes increasingly hinge on relationship management with a handful of hit-makers like Rovio, whose scheduling decisions function as de facto verdicts on an OS's commercial relevance.
The trend: Mobile game launches are consolidating around an iOS-and-Android-first release cadence, leaving smaller platforms dependent on goodwill-driven ports and absorbing a recurring credibility cost each time a marquee title slips.