SEGA to acquire Angry Birds developer, Rovio, for $775 million
The news comes as SEGA looks to strengthen its position in the mobile gaming market.
SEGA has announced its plans to acquire the mobile developer, Rovio, in a whopping $775 million deal. That’s €706 million, or £625 million, over in Europe.
Rovio is best known for its endeavours with the mobile game that took the world by storm back in the early 2010s: Angry Birds. SEGA’s acquisition of the developer comes from its aims to strengthen its position in the mobile gaming market, which SEGA believes is projected to account for 56% of the global gaming market overall by 2026.
SEGA has stated that it plans to take in Rovio’s live-operated mobile game development capabilities and expertise in mobile game operation, to accelerate the development of mobile compatible and multi-platform-supported versions of SEGA’s existing game IPs.
All in all, it appears that this acquisition is far from being about Angry Birds. If anything, SEGA has seemingly seen an avenue in the gaming market that it wishes to explore further, and thinks the talent behind Rovio is capable of doing just that. There's also Rovio's in-house live service tool 'Beacon', which could also aid this new venture for the industry giant.
This isn’t the first time SEGA has tried its hands at acquisitions, either, it having bought Persona-developer, Atlus, back in 2013. Does this acquisition mean we could see some solid Persona titles on mobile? I certainly hope so, but SEGA has a lot more under its belt to be working with, too, and its no stranger to mobile games.
The Japanese gaming giant anticipates the acquisition of the Angry Birds developer to close during Q2 of the 2024 financial year. This means the acquisition should be complete before September ends this year.