Rovio Entertainment, laying the groundwork for the Angry Birds 2 film slated for next September, is seeking to expand retail distribution of licensed products compared to the first film in working with master toy licensee Jazwares and agents, including Evolution in the U.S., says Rovio’s Simo Hamalainen.

Rovio has signed 30 licensees for the U.S. market so far and wants to go deeper with fewer companies for the second film. Rovio had around 400 licensees globally for the first film. In toys, in addition to Jazwares, Rovio has signed Maisto (ride-on vehicles) and Edukeys International Services (construction).

“I am not so worried about the number of licensees. The key is the quality of them and long-term partnerships,” says Hamalainen. “I hope the distribution will be better and that we cover all the top markets. We could have fewer licensees, but bigger programs. And we will pay more attention to distribution than we did the last time; the goal is to get more product to retail.”

In addition to licensed products, Rovio expects to have live events in 2020 along with long-form content that will be either 26 or 52 episodes of 11 minutes each, says Hamalainen.

Rovio also will have a separate licensing program in 2019 for the 10th anniversary of the original game’s release. Meanwhile, the company has released “Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot,” its first augmented reality (AR)-based title that it co-developed with Resolution Games. The game was developed for Magic Leap’s Magic One AR headset ($2,300), which was released last summer and capped a development effort that began in January when Rovio entered the company’s developer program. Instead of swiping a finger left to right to fling birds at pigs, in the AR title there is a remote that serves as a “slingshot” for shooting the birds in a 3D environment.

Contact:

Rovio Entertainment, Simo Hamalainen, SVP Brand Licensing, +358 50 585 9757, simo.hamalainen@rovio.com