SEGA, the Japanese developer and video game publisher known for revolutionizing arcades and creating Sonic the Hedgehog, is now acquiring Rovio, the creator of Angry Birds, in a statement issued today.
The mobile developer, with headquarters in Finland, will be purchased for approximately $775 million, a figure that is about 19% higher than the share price as of the Friday market close, according to The Wall Street Journal. This deal is projected to go through by the end of September.
In the official press release, SEGA hopes to make use of “Rovio’s distinctive know-how in live service mobile game operation to bring SEGA’s current and new titles to the global mobile gaming market.”
This looks like nothing more than SEGA attempting to establish a similar foothold in the mobile scene, as seen with Nintendo and its incredibly successful portable franchises like Pokémon GO and Fire Emblem Heroes. In addition, SEGA is planning to work with Rovio to expand its platform beyond mobile games.
Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, the CEO of Rovio, spoke at length regarding the company’s Beacon architecture, whose platform is designed to create products in the games-as-a-service category.
Rovio achieved international recognition with its 2009 release of Angry Birds, claiming to be the first mobile game series ever to have gotten 1 billion downloads, with more than 5 billion across the company’s lifespan. Angry Birds became so big that it spawned a slew of merchandise and even saw two feature-film adaptations.