Are “Angry Birds” the New Buzz?

If you’ve been wondering when the on-line gaming craze is going to cross over to smart phones  and which game will move from there to dominate the cyber landscape, well, the New York Times thinks they have the answer. In their Saturday edition a front page article describes how the “Angry Birds,” born in Finland, have taken over.

Produced for about a hundred thousand dollars by Rovio, a small Finnish gaming company, it portrays the revenge a flock of really mad red birds take on some greedy pigs who have stolen their eggs. Despite (or maybe because of) the simplicity of the idea, it has been downloaded over 50 million times this past year, and is Apple iPhones best-selling app.  At $.99 per unit, it has generated over 7 million in income.

Imitators have noted its simplicity and addictive nature. It is a game that you might play on the checkout line at the grocery store, or waiting on a delayed flight. It has hada minimal advertising budget and has succeeded by generating that ephemeral quality: “buzz”.

The Times quotes Jesse Schell, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, who studies game design and entertainment technology. “Rovio made a smart choice in making the birds angry. You can smash them into things and it’s O.K.,” he said. “Imagine if they said were cute little birds. It might be kind of funny on some level, but most people would probably be a little repulsed.”

To learn more about “Angry Birds”  Click Here to go to the Rovio web site.