Angry Birds dev profits falling off sharply - but not for the reason you think

Angry Birds developer Rovio saw a massive drop-off in profits over the past financial year. Has the mobile games bubble burst?

Nope.

No, mobile games are still goldarned minting it. Rovio reported revenue from mobile games increased 16% to €110.7 million. The company recorded 600 million downloads over the course of the year.

It's everything else that's fallen off - especially licensed merchandise. It looks like the kids are no longer buying Angry Birds plushies and soft drinks by the bushel.

"Sales of consumer by-products did not move according to expectations, and surely we are unsatisfied over the result of our licensing business," chief executive Pekka Rantala said in a statement published by Reuters.

The result of this decline was a 73% decrease in operating profit in 2014 to €10 million. It was €36.5 million in 2013 and €76.8 million in 2012, so you can see there's quite a pattern there.

Rovio can probably survive on mobile game revenue alone, but not on the astoundingly lavish scale of its heyday. Then again, the company tried dozens of games before it hit on the phenomenon of Angry Birds; maybe it can do it again.