Forget your visit to Disney World. Your kids might prefer Angry Birds Land. OK, Angry Birds Land doesn’t exist yet — not in the United States, at least — but the maker of the wildly popular mobile game is branching into other realms, from movies to theme parks, in a sign of what’s in store for the future of entertainment. One minute a game is a 99-cent smartphone distraction, and the next it’s a rival to Disney.
If you haven’t heard of Angry Birds (unlikely), or played it (quite possible), Angry Birds is a game that’s all about using slingshots to launch birds at pigs. The concept is ridiculous, and the reality is addictive. You can now play various versions of the game, including Angry Birds Star Wars, Seasons, and Rio.
In just three years, the game has been transformed from an amusing iPhone diversion from a Finnish company into a worldwide cultural phenomenon, with T-shirts, posters and movie tie-ins. It didn’t exist, and then it was everywhere.
Rovio, the maker of the game, is now capitalizing on this and expanding far beyond its roots as an iPhone game. As you would expect, the game is now available on other mobile phones and tablets. You can also play it on videogame consoles and the Roku television streaming device. An Angry Birds area opened at the Särkänniemi Adventure Park in Finland last summer, and others are planned around the world. An Angry Birds exhibit, “Angry Birds Space Encounter,” opened recently at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. And John Cohen, producer of “Despicable Me,” has been enlisted as producer of a Rovio-financed Angry Birds movie.
