The Finnish company Rovio Entertainment, the developer of the popular game for mobile devices Angry Birds, reported a decrease in profit and revenue in 2015. The reason for the fall was the low demand for toys, clothing and other goods that are produced under license from the brand.
According to a press release from Rovio, operating income last year was 10 million euros against 36.5 million euros a year earlier (-73%), while revenue fell to 158.3 million euros from 173.5 million euros.
To reverse this negative trend, Rovio in 2014 decided to cut about 110 people, or 14% of the staff, as well as change the CEO instead of Michael Heda company was headed by Pekka Rantala, who previously worked at Nokia.
Part of these steps gave a positive result: Rovio has shifted from production paid games on the development of "shareware" games (they can be downloaded for free, but the game is available to improve pay and various bonuses), and this strategy has led to an increase in revenue from gaming segment with 95, 2 million euros to 110.7 million euros.
But also a significant share of revenue is the sale of rights to use the images of characters of games (mostly birds of Angry Birds) on various products, as well as the license for the creation of theme parks and playgrounds based on games. Revenues from these activities in 2015 fell by 43% to 41.4 million euros.
Decline in operating profit Rovio means that the Angry Birds brand loses its appeal. In addition, the company is not yet possible to repeat the success of the original game, released in 2009. Rovio indicators fell for the first year, for example, in 2012 the company earned about $ 82.3 million.
Renthal hopes to achieve tangible improvements in earnings in the sector after the film based on Angry Birds. Its premiere is scheduled for 2016.