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Rovio Entertainment Announces Development of New AR App Set to Link Licensed Products to Digital Angry Birds Universe

Rovio Entertainment Announces Development of New AR App Set to Link Licensed Products to Digital Angry Birds Universe

Users to experience fully customizable world that mixes digital and physical licensed products

State-of-the-art technology to deliver rich AR experience for brands, retailers and consumers

ESPOO, FinlandOct. 8, 2018 – Rovio Entertainment is thrilled to announce the development of a revolutionary new augmented reality (AR) app that is set to seamlessly connect Rovio licensed products with the digital Angry Birds universe.

The new app in the pipeline, codenamed ‘Project Magic,’ will transport consumers into a breathtaking new world, allowing them to engage in highly immersive branded content experiences that bridge the gap between digital and physical licensed products. With an official release date set in 2019, Project Magic’s new ecosystem will be the latest milestone in Rovio’s ever-expanding brand licensing roadmap, which has already seen them working with some of the world’s largest brands and IPs.

Project Magic will enable Angry Birds fans to travel through an augmented reality portal straight onto Bird Island – the home of the Angry Birds. App users will be able to explore Bird Island and discover various exciting, high-production-value AR locations and experiences. Project Magic will utilize augmented reality to enrich user interaction with promotional and licensing partners’ products and locations, mixing the boundaries between the digital and the physical worlds.

Simo Hämäläinen, Senior Vice President, Brand Licensing at Rovio Entertainment, commented: “Project Magic represents a major licensing milestone for Rovio’s Brand Licensing Unit, as our vision of being able to add digital overlay to licensed products is now reality. We’ve been working diligently alongside our long-time AR partner Zappar to create a cool, always-on digital brand licensing ecosystem that not only adds value to consumers, but also helps to bridge the physical and digital worlds of Angry Birds. Licensing partners will have an incredible opportunity to create exceptional branded content experiences across our physical and digital touch points, and our consumers will be able to immerse themselves even further in the wonderful world of the Angry Birds.’’

Rovio is currently developing Project Magic alongside renowned augmented reality specialists Zappar. This state-of-the-art augmented reality platform will build on the successes of Rovio and Zappar’s previous collaboration within AR, which was created for The Angry Birds Movie launch back in 2016.

Max Dawes, Partnerships & Marketing Director at Zappar, commented: ‘’Over the past seven years working in the augmented reality space we’ve learnt a lot about how companies can create value with AR. We’re beyond excited to be able to leverage those learnings on such a huge scale with the fantastic team at Rovio. A brand’s largest owned media channels are their products, their packaging and their stores; through the addition of interactive Angry Birds content, these channels can surprise, delight and entertain consumers like never before. In addition, Rovio’s partners will see hard data on when and how consumers are interacting. We can’t wait to unleash the magic!’’

Rovio is also developing a long-term and diverse platform of entertainment touch points for its passionate global audience. A brand new long-form animation is planned for 2020. Other flagship projects include brand-new live stage shows, new animated and live action content for Rovio’s Angry Birds YouTube channel, and new location-based entertainment initiatives. The planned 2019 theatrical release of The Angry Birds Movie 2 is swiftly followed by the landmark 10th anniversary of the original Angry Birds in December 2019. To date, the Angry Birds family of games have amassed over four billion downloads since 2009. Throughout 2018, Rovio will continue its games event and partnership program, developing bespoke in-game content for new brand partners. Some previous partnerships include Imagine Dragons, the NFL/Super Bowl, Iron Maiden and Everton Football Club.

Rovio at BLE 2018:

Should you wish to hear more and have a chat with Rovio – come and meet us at Brand Licensing Expo in London on October 9-11! Rovio booth number F10.

ABOUT ROVIO ENTERTAINMENT

Rovio Entertainment Corporation is a global entertainment company that creates, develops and publishes mobile games, which have been downloaded over 4 billion times. The Company is best known for the global Angry Birds brand, which started as a popular mobile game in 2009, and has since evolved from games to various entertainment and consumer products in brand licensing. Today, the Company offers multiple mobile games, animations and has produced The Angry Birds Movie, which opened number one in theatres in 50 countries and the sequel of which is in production. Rovio is headquartered in Finland and the Company’s shares are listed on the main list of the NASDAQ Helsinki stock exchange with the trading code ROVIO. (www.rovio.com)

ABOUT ZAPPAR

Zappar have been blazing a trail in augmented reality since way back in 2011. Founded by seasoned marketing and video game execs and alumni of Cambridge University, the Zappar team is now made up of 50 people across their London headquarters and offices in San Francisco, Boston and Sydney.

Zappar describe themselves as an augmented reality platform and a creative studio, rolled into one. Their platform is called ZapWorks and is empowering thousands of designers and developers around the world to create and instantly publish immersive and engaging AR content. Agencies and in-house teams use ZapWorks’s unrivalled feature-set to bring to life everything from marketing campaigns to learning and development materials. Zappar’s own in-house team have delivered against AR strategies for hundreds of clients, with thousands of activations. An example of this is the recent introduction of AR to the 7-Eleven app and all their North American stores as part of an always on strategy. Or Nestle who are adopting augmented reality at a global level to turn product packaging into interactive multimedia portals and leverage their packaging as their largest owned media asset. Zappar’s underlying mission is to democratise AR and get it into the hands and lives of as many people of possible, unlocking value for businesses and end-users alike.