Puzzle/RPG hybrid Puzzle & Dragons and messenger app Line aren’t the only hypes in Japan’s smartphone world right now.

The third big name that must be mentioned in this context is Nameko Saibai, a series of super-quirky smartphone games that center on cute mushroom characters (nameko is a special mushroom, while saibai means cultivation).

Tokyo-based Beeworks probably didn’t know they were to produce the country’s first really big smartphone game when they launched the first Nameko title, namely Nameko Saibai Kit (English version: “Mushroom Garden” or “Funghi Gardening Kit”) in June 2011 on iOS – eight months before Puzzle & Dragons.

Today, if there is one company that can be labeled as a Japanese counterpart of the makers of Angry Birds, Rovio, it’s Beeworks – albeit on a small scale.

The first game in the franchise

As the title suggests, players need to grow mushrooms on a piece of wood, and wait a while for them to grow before harvesting them by swiping over the screen. There are varieties of Nameko, some of which are harder to get than others. The goal of the game is to “collect them all”. There is basically no real game play, no high-quality graphics or music (quite the contrary), and no social hooks.

Reasons I heard from Japanese players why they like the game so much include “I like the feeling of swiping over the screen to harvest the mushrooms”, “The Namekos are so cute”, and “I love how they say NNFF NNFF when I harvest them”.

This first Nameko game took Japan by storm (without any marketing at the start) and currently boasts 11 million downloads across iOS and Android, putting it in Puzzle & Dragons territory.

Variations on a theme

Much like Rovio with its numerous editions of Angry Birds, Beeworks was very clever in creating variations of essentially the same game and making use of its existing user base for distribution. There are two different versions in addition to the original, namely Nameko Saibai Kit Seasons (users can harvest different mushrooms, depending on the season) and Nameko Saibai Kit Deluxe (which has some improvements, i.e. BGM).

Beeworks has been seeing considerable success with this strategy, in Japan and some Asian countries. The company is offering English versions of Nameko (on iOS and Android), but success outside Asia has been limited so far. As of April 7 this year, all Nameko Saibai Kit games have been downloaded 30,192,789 million times worldwide.

Parallels to Rovio

The Japanese developer can’t think in billions like Rovio does, but the numbers above are pretty impressive, and there are a few parallels between the two companies. For instance, much like Rovio, Beeworks was a small company that was around for a long time but largely unknown before landing its first real big hit (Beeworks was established in 1998, Rovio in 2003).

Both companies rolled out variations of their hits in quick succession and cross-promoted them inside the existing user base: the “Seasons” versions even share the exact same name and idea. Both franchises are specifically made for touch screens, feature “character-focused” design, come with a low learning curve and with extra-cute graphics and sound.

But the biggest parallel can actually be found somewhere else.

Nameko’s popularity in Japan made it possible for Beeworks to build a successful merchandising business around its IP: there are now Nameko-themed toys, phone cases, stationery, key holders, clothes, music CDs (yes, really), candy, coffee mugs, manga, furniture, slippers, etc.

The line-up of official Nameko goods can be found here (the list is not even complete: for example, it doesn’t show there are special Nameko stickers available for Line, too).

What’s interesting (and a big difference to Angry Birds) is that all Nameko games are entirely free: there are no download fees, no premium versions, and no in-app purchases. In addition, Beeworks is relatively easy on the ads, a lot of which are just used to drive traffic from one Nameko game to the other.

The strategy here is to bring the game in front of as many eyeballs as possible and make money (almost) entirely with non-game related products later.

Beeworks isn’t saying how well this is working, but anecdotally speaking, I can see the strategy of building a character goods business on top of a free game series succeeding – at least here in “character-crazy” Japan (the title’s Facebook page offers a lot of hints). I even believe the life cycle of the Nameko merchandising business could be longer than that of the apps, which may be something Rovio is betting on as well with Angry Birds.

But so far, the game itself is still working: social games specialist Chiho Komoriya (who is part of a family of farmers in Akita prefecture) goes so far as to say Nameko’s popularity is responsible for the recent increase in demand for real nameko mushrooms in the country.

Shanghai's Pudong biz district skyline turns green. Photo courtesy of Rovio Mobile.

Rovio Mobile will launch its much-anticipated Angry Birds spin-off game, called Bad Piggies, later today, and the company has taken to the roads of China to promote it. Last night, in a neat publicity stunt, the Shanghai Pudong skyline was turned green (pictured above) by a light-projection of the Bad Piggies, those dastardly nemeses of the understandably frustrated birdies.

But that’s not all. As spotted by lots of Sina Weibo users, there are two elaborately painted vans going round Shanghai (pictured below). The red van represents the Angry Birds, and the green one for the piggies. We’ve confirmed with the Rovio office in Beijing Shanghai that the vans are “official and a part of our Bad Piggies launch” – but it’s not clear what time exactly the new game will roll-out in China, and the game developer is keeping it under wraps for now. All we know is that it should hit iOS, Android, and Mac pretty much simultaneously sometime today.

[Update: Bad Piggies is available here]

Both photos via Weibo user @万里行房车 taken today in Shanghai.

Bad Piggies will be the the second different title (following the puzzler Amazing Alex) after the huge global success of the four Angry Birds series games. China was a huge part of that success, as seen with the local Rovio office and versions of the original game that used familiar cultural themes, such as Angry Birds Seasons for Chinese New Year, and even one for the autumnal Moon Festival. If Bad Piggies prove as popular, then we’ll likely see similar adaptations – and lots more cutesy piggy merchandise too.

The discussion began with the panelists reflecting on Disney, which resulted in exactly the sort of self-congratulatory idiocy you might expect at an event like this from a few of the panelists. Roberts and Moldavsky stayed out of the fray, but the other panelists expressed skepticism about Disney that spiraled until we reached the point when Narry Singh actually said this sentence, referring to the makers of casual mobile games: “We’ve destroyed traditional storytelling.” My guess is the purveyors of more traditional kinds of storytelling — for example, the filmmakers behind The Avengers, which made more than $200 million this past weekend — would have some issues with that claim. But let’s move on.

From there, the panelists began talking about brands, and how each company has dealt with its game becoming a brand. Both Roberts and Moldavsky said that building a brand wasn’t really their focus, but that their companies eventually saw from the responses of fans to the game that there was demand for additional products and brand licensed products. Larsen pointed out that most of these companies got their initial boost from a single product — in his case, Fruit Ninja — and that Halfbrick has had success building its brand by expanding that product in a way that’s thoughtful and targeted.

This was also the moment when Mr. Singh came back down to earth, where he remained for the remainder of the panel. “I didn’t realize we were a brand until we got invited on this panel,” he joked, adding: “But are we sustainable brands? Time will tell.”

Merchandising has been a big project for many of these companies over the past year, but none more so than Rovio, which has been pumping out everything from stickers to Angry Birds underwear (which is big in Australia, according to Holm). Holm says it’s all about fan engagement for Rovio, which has now been doing merchandising for nearly two years. Merchandising in China is obviously especially important since it’s much harder to sell games here than in other markets, and Roberts illustrated this by pointing out that PopCap has been merchandising in China for more than a year, but just started merchandising elsewhere around a week ago.

Speaking about piracy in China, Roberts put the blame squarely at his own company’s feet, saying that when gamers pirate a game it means that the company has failed to properly connect its game with the market. That’s one reason PopCap just announced a China-focused Plants vs. Zombies expansion — the initial success of PvZ in China took PopCap by surprise and the game hadn’t been designed or properly introduced to this market.

Tanaka — who was an excellent host — pushed the panelists on China. Are they making much money in the Chinese market? All of them admitted that while they have huge user numbers in China, overall, it doesn’t make up a significant portion of their revenue. But all of them also expressed hope that that would change. The phrase “huge potential” was mentioned more than once.

Roberts closed the panel with some good advice for anyone interested in making globally popular games: “Make the best game you can make, and take as long as you can to make it great.”

This post is a part of our coverage of GMIC 2012.

A US IPO seems to be the preferred endgame of Chinese tech companies these days, and now we may have another one to add to the list: the China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group. Sina Tech says the company is planning an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, although this is one of those thinly-sourced “according to information” stories, so take it with a few grains of salt. Still, it does fall in line with an earlier official announcement that the company would seek to go public after splitting off from its parent company (First Video Group) to focus on mobile gaming.

You may not be familiar with CMGE, but the group — a three-developer collective — has done some pretty high profile work in China. In addition to developing a number of its own games, like the popular Pao Pao Xi You, the team has also been responsible for helping distribute and localize some popular international mobile games. It works with Rovio, for example, to help develop versions of Angry Birds for Chinese feature phones.

It remains to be seen whether there’s any truth to these NYSE IPO rumors. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see CMGE list sometime this year, and I expect plenty of US investors will be interested in getting involved in the white-hot Chinese mobile gaming market. If you’re interested in learning more about CMGE, the company’s official site is here and has a list of games it works on.

[Via Sina Tech]

Cherry blossom season is about to start, and the folks at Mobile Monday Tokyo aren’t wasting any time taking to the great outdoors. Today I spoke with the group’s organizer Lars Cosh-Ishii, who tells me that the upcoming hanami event will be on the evening of Thursday, April 5th [1] at Kinuta Park, a famous cherry blossom viewing spot.

The event will also welcome special guests from Rovio, I’m told, who were in the hanami spirit a few weeks in advance with their cherry blossom festival update for Angry Birds Seasons. I’m not sure exactly what’s in store, but supposedly there will be “fun gaming action with groovy prizes on-hand.” I can’t say for certain, but I suspect it might be something similar to last week’s Rovio event where attendees got to play Angry Birds Space for a while, with the highest scorer getting a prize.

In any case, if you’re in Tokyo and you’d like to meet up with some fellow mobile/gaming enthusiasts, do check out the full details over on the Mobile Monday Tokyo website.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to find out other places to check out cherry blossoms in Japan, click on over to Google’s very slick Cherry Blossom Guide that features some amazing Street View pictures and information for the main viewing spots around the country.

[Image: maynard on Flickr]

Yesterday we were delighted to try out Rovio’s new game Angry Birds Space at an event in Tokyo. Since then the game has hit number one in the App Store at least 28 countries so far, according to Inside Mobile Apps.

But let’s be honest. You really can’t say you’ve made it until you’ve been animated by Taiwan’s NMA.tv. So no doubt the folks over at Rovio are likely pretty ecstatic that their angry birds have been turned into animated cartoons!

No wait. It’s an animation of an animation.

In a dream…

Where’s my spin-top?

But in all seriousness, Angry Birds Space is a pretty elegant spin-off on their original hit game. The mechanics are all twisted, but yet still based on real physics. It’s just outer-space physics now.

Check out NMA’s take on Angry Birds Space in the video below.

At a press conference in Tokyo today, Rovio held a small event to mark the release of Angry Birds Space.

I got to try out the game a little bit this afternoon, just before its global release. What’s cool about the game is that in order for the bird you fire to drop, you need enter the planet’s gravity field. If not, the bird you fire will just keep flying indefinitely. Thankfully Rovio has added some red trajectory lines to help players out.

The game features a number of new characters with new abilities, including the new Ice Cube bird, a purple Lazer bird, and the green bird Terrence which has been apparently upgraded to Incredible Terrence (I’m not sure what that means). Apparently we’ll know all the names of the birds when the comic is released later.

From an educational point of view, the game looks pretty neato. It’s a good way for kids to learn about how gravity works – without having to give them bullets to fire at the horizon. If you need a better explanation, NASA recently put up a video online that discussed this as well.

Angry Birds has also collaborated with National Geographic on an official companion book for Angry Birds Space. It explains all kinds of information about the planets, stars, comets, and all kinds of other things in other space.

We should also clarify that while this may be the first time that birds have been reported in outer space, it is actually not the first time for pigs.

Rovio was showing off some fun Angry Birds Space merchandise as well, and one of their representatives also had some fancy space glasses. The game will become available for download at 5pm Japan standard time (right about now), so be sure to check it out for yourself.

Update: We have some more photos from today’s event over on our Facebook page, thanks to Derek A. (aka @imorpheus).

Ever since Rovio chose to celebrate its 2nd birthday in Japan, it was expected that a Japanese version of Angry Birds Seasons was in the works. The game developer just yesterday pushed out a cherry blossom festival update for the title for both Android and iOS. Rovio also partnered with Japan’s Fuji TV to bring Angry Birds to many new fans via the Fuji TV website at angrybirds.fujitv.co.jp.

I gave the game a try in the browser at the Fuji TV site and I liked it a lot. The cherry blossom theme, Mount Fuji backdrop, food items like norimaki or onigiri, and Japan-theme costumes costumes of the birds were all lots of fun. The pigs even appear to have been influenced by Japanese architecture when building their little wooden forts.

So after going to China and Japan, where are the Angry Birds going next? It looks like space is the next frontier, coming on March 22nd if this tweet from @AngryBirds is to be trusted. And apparently Rovio has another special announcement coming in about an hour or so at 3pm GTM. I’ll try and update this post as soon as I hear about it.

Update: It looks like the announcement was Angry Birds Space after all. But they made the announcement in space, with some help from NASA!

Surf and Turf - The exclusive Facebook Angry Birds stage.

Rovio Entertainment held a launch event at Mal Kelapa Gading in the city of Jakarta, the Facebook capital of the world based on the number of active Facebook accounts. Rovio today finally launched Angry Birds on Facebook, topped up with special features, including social components, power-ups, and Facebook-exclusive levels. You can have a go here.

With new social features for Angry Birds on Facebook, fans can compete with friends, brag around about scores and earn the coveted gold, silver, and bronze crowns. Power-ups are a big addition on Facebook. Beside the all-powerful Mighty Eagle there are more power-ups that you can receive by playing the game, receiving them as ‘mystery gifts’ from friends or purchasing them. There are four power ups available: Sling Scope, King Style, Super Seeds, and Bird Quake.

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/angrybirds/status/169395465064939520"]

I asked Henri Holm, the SVP of Rovio Asia, why he chose this mall among all the other places in Jakarta where brands typically launch products. He explained:

We want to be where our fans are. We don’t hold press conferences, when we met you last month, it was a press conference. We are trying to think out of the box and reach our fans by holding this event. You can see families enjoying themselves here on this lovely day.

With this Facebook launch, reaching out to more 800 million users, Rovio goal of reaching a billion fans may well be on the right track. Another important announcement is that Pacific Licensing Studio is bringing Angry Birds to life through a consumer products launch. Pacific Licensing Studio was appointed as the official licensing representative in Southeast Asia and India, working with local partners to produce Angry Birds merchandise including apparels, novelties, and toys.

There is also the Angry Birds Facebook Jakarta Challenge. This is a photo contest Rovio is holding with Kompas, sponsored by Air Asia. Five lucky winners will get a trip to Bangkok. And lets not forget about the campaign on Facebook and Twitter to request Rovio to create the #MightyGaruda, one of the new characters that will be in a future version of #AngryBirdsID. While we didn’t see Angry Birds break out pink birds or red roses today, Rovio indeed gave Jakarta a very fun afternoon.

If it’s not Cupid’s arrow hitting you this Valentine’s Day, it’s likely to be one of those infamous Angry Birds! As previously reported here on PO, Rovio has already launched Angry Birds to over 800 million Facebook users around the world on this special day. Complete with leader boards to compare scores with friends and power-up items, it looks set to take the social platform by storm.

As Rovio’s CEO Peter Vesterbacka has previously said, the company aims to be an ‘entertainment franchise’ and has been keenly expanding into different areas, including merchandising (who can forget those adorable plush toys), animation (acquiring the animation studio Kombo) and even creating comics. Rovio is also producing localized content, such as the recent special edition in celebration of the Chinese Year of the Dragon.

For its Japanese readers, Rovio has put together a humorous little comic for Valentine’s Day. Will the Pigs and Birds call for a truce on this special day? Our Japanese readers can find out below!

Read the rest of this special Valentine’s Day comic here.

Rovio previously said that Japanese users can look forward to a localized version of the Angry Birds Seasons series in the near future. For the time being, you can enjoy the game on Facebook.

Asha means ‘hope’ in Hindi, and this handset follows its predecessors the Asha 303, 200, and 201. With this new phone, Nokia has blurred the lines between feature phone and smartphone, with smartphone features that can be used on the cheaper mobile phones like the Asha series.

The Asha 300, which is priced at just IDR 999,000 (US$ 110), boasts fast internet connections over 3G HSPA, and is powered by a 1GHz processor. It has a touch interface with a keymat and a 5 megapixel camera with video recording. It also comes with Angry Birds Lite pre-installed.

Bob McDougall, the country manager for Nokia Indonesia, noted that there are over 3000 local apps available already, and the company is working together with 50 universities and 10,000 developers around the country. A success story from a local developer is Ramadhan Bachtiar, whose app reached 22 millions downloads globally, and with Nokia-integrated operator billing he could fund his own start-up and be independent.

Although Nokia claims that it still has 30 percent marketshare over all the mobile phones in the world (it was 27 percent at the end of Q3), it is declining and with pressure from all directions. On the lower end of the market in Indonesia they are fighting Android handsets and cheaper phones manufactured in China. If Nokia really puts its focus on the right segment of the market, I think it can still survive the mobile wars.

From left to right: Rovio's Henri, and Peter, with PO's Joshua, earlier today in Jakarta.

Speaking exclusively to Penn Olson today in Jakarta, Peter Vesterbacka, the ‘Mighty Eagle’ of Rovio, and Henri Holm, the SVP of Rovio Asia, shared the company’s plan to release Angry Birds to more than 800 million people on Facebook. And what’s more, the company is planning its big launch to be held in Jakarta on February 14th. Why Jakarta? Well it’s obvious, Peter says, as Jakarta is the global capital of Facebook. Holding the launch here would be appropriate as it is a major Facebook hub.

Angry Birds has become a phenomenon in such a short time, and Rovio has been busy building the brand on top of the already successful game title. Now with over 700 million downloads (on its way to pass 1 billion this year) Rovio is becoming an entertainment company which will make comics, animations (it has acquired an animation company), and even plush toys to complete a full circle of online-offline engagement. With this, Rovio aims to have 1 billion fans instead of just 1 billion downloads.

The Next Billion

While it has been the must-have game on iOS and Android phones or tablets, Rovio wants Angry Birds on every screen. They want it on every possible platform. To make this possible they’ve also worked with Samsung so that Angry Birds will be pre-installed on every new Smart TV and the 2010 and 2011 versions of the TV sets will get an update that will install Angry Birds. Not only that, they are bringing the Angry Birds experience to the next billion by reaching the feature phone market (working together with Nokia on its Asha series). In the near future, Rovio is also working to bring a seamless and connected experience through any platform you play Angry Birds on. For example, if you start playing Angry Birds on your iPad, you can continue your progress on your Samsung TV or on a PC in an internet cafe.

Angry Birds Power-Ups

So what’s so special about bringing Angry Birds to Facebook? Shown for the first time to the world outside their labs, Peter brings us through the Angry Birds experience on Facebook, showing its full screen capability and higher quality animation to maximize your playing experience. Rovio will also introduce new power-ups (e.g. an earthquake; or special, bigger, or stronger birds) which you can buy (for US$0.99) or earn while playing the game. Peter said that Rovio won’t introduce a product unless it’s a great one, and claims that 40 percent of users are actually interested in buying the power-ups, in contrast to just 3 to 4 percent in most other games.

Sociable Birds?

The next feature (and perhaps an obvious one) is social. Angry Birds on Facebook will have leaderboards so people can try to beat each other scores by buying power-ups to earn ‘bragging rights.’ When asked about the payment system in Indonesia, Peter said that rather than moaning about how they can’t make money because of it, they are bringing a solution to that problem.

Rovio also plans to release more games than it did last year (it released the Rio and Seasons variants in 2011) including making a more localized game with local content. Rovio released a Year of the Dragon update to Angry Birds Seasons for the Chinese New Year where it has a new theme, animations, and of course, a swooping dragon as a ‘power-up.’ The team is planning to do something like this in Indonesia, and that’s another part of the reason for the visit here. The forthcoming game will include local content such as Batik, Garuda, or even Komodo so that it has a more local touch filled with Indonesian cultural references. This looks set to be a separate, new Angry Birds game, and not just an update to Seasons.

Rovio also plans to recruit an intern by holding a game developer competition in Indonesia. The winner will earn an internship for a month to get to know how Rovio works – and in return, he or she can make a contribution to this localized version of Angry Birds. Rovio, though, is dismissing rumors that there’s any plan to have an office here – but it will have several local partners for the brand.

Angry Birds for Facebook will be released on February 14, 2012 worldwide, and as we heard from the Mighty Eagle himself, it will be launched in Jakarta. We encourage our readers not to get too carried away playing the game that you forget your normal Valentine’s Day responsibilities. Angry Birds are one thing, but angry girlfriends are a different game altogether.

A couple of weeks back we told you that Rovio was hinting at a new China-themed update. And today we have it, as Angry Birds Seasons has a Year-of-the-Dragon special edition [1].

There are 15 new levels for fans to check out, with lots of fun in-game China goodies like exploding fireworks that you can trigger to help you on your quest to turn pigs into bacon. You can also now enlist the assistance of a ‘Mighty Dragon’ too (see screenshot above).

Rovio’s teaser from a couple of days back is pretty fun too, with stylized artwork that shows the evil pigs doing a warped puppet show. You can check that out below. Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka says that fans in Japan can expect a localized Angry Birds edition sometime soon as well.

A screenshot from the hint-dropping Rovio video.

Rovio Mobile, makers of the Angry Birds game series, has left a very big hint that its Angry Birds Seasons game will get a Chinese New Year update very soon.

The hint, spotted by Pocketgamer UK, comes in a new year’s greeting uploaded to YouTube (and embedded below) which sees a dragon fly past at the exact same time that it mentions there’ll be an update to the smash-hit game this January. If that not-too-subtle hint isn’t enough, the lanterns, red walls, and karst peaks ought to be sufficient to indicate that the game will soon get its second-ever Chinese-themed update – after the moon festival episode back in September last year.

Chinese New Year is a lunar festival which this year falls on January 23rd – so the anticipated Angry Birds Seasons update (which last got refreshed for Christmas) will certainly arrive a few days before that.

That previous moon festival special edition came with merchandising – some cute Angry Birds mooncakes. Given Rovio’s increasing move into the general entertainment industry – as we heard the company’s Peter Vesterbacka explain at the TC Disrupt Beijing conference recently – it’s likely that Chinese New Year will give rise to some new birdy merchandise.

Here’s the Rovio video greeting for regular new year, which contains the Chinese teaser:

[Source: Pocketgamer]

In today’s changing gaming landscape few characters are as iconic as Angry Birds. And while publisher Rovio is modest about the comparison, Angry Birds is perhaps the first franchise to ride the smartphone wave to approach heights only occupied by Mario, Zelda, Sonic, and Pac-man. And yet the brand is still in its infancy.

Today in Tokyo, Rovio celebrated the second birthday of Angry Birds with an event at the Ginza Apple Store. Rovio’s ‘Mighty Eagle’ Peter Vesterbacka was on hand, as was Antii Sonninen who is the company’s representative in Japan. Peter looked back on Rovio’s journey so far, and the conditions and circumstances that came together for Angry Birds to take flight as they did. As Peter notes, Rovio is only just getting started, explaining that the company’s trajectory over the next year will bring many more games than we saw in 2011. He lays out a roadmap that looks to rocket the Angry Birds brand to a billion fans, with more than a few unlikely stops along the way. You can read Peter’s two-year retrospective below, including some new announcements, and the vision for the future — which is about to include Japan. [1]

How Rovio was hatched #

Rovio's 'Mighty Eagle' Peter Vesterbacka has eyes set on a billion fans

Rovio is not new to games, and it has now been two years since Angry Birds – but we have been making games since 2003. There were 51 games before Angry Birds. It’s important to keep in mind that success stories like these don’t happen overnight. Angry Birds is an overnight success story that took a few years to make.

If you look at Rovio, it started out of a competition I organized while at HP at Helsinki in Finland. After Niklas Hed and two student friends were making mobile multi-player games (him and two friends won the competition) they asked what should we do now? I said why not start a company? And so Rovio got started.

Angry Birds was the 52nd game. Some other games were also good, primarily games we did for others. Bounce was on 220 million Nokia phones. We made Burnout and Need for Speed for EA. Lots of work for higher projects. It’s important to note that the market was tough for a small startup like Rovio. You used to need to be friends with handset and mobile operators for distribution; it was very tough to get distributed. It’s appropriate that we’re celebrating here at the Apple Store in Tokyo, because what really changed the market was the iPhone and even more the App Store. It’s much easier for small developers to distribute games now. We have Apple and the App Store to thank for that.

If you look at Angry Birds, we’re about two years into the experience, not such a long time. On December 11, 2009 Angry Birds came out. Development started in spring of 2009, and the process took eight months. We thought we knew good games, but distribution was hard. We looked at the iPhone and the App Store, and analyzed many games out there to see what it took to make a hit game. And our strategy was to keep making games until we had a hit an then take it to all screens – like a Tetris strategy – make an iPhone hit and then take it everywhere. And on December 11 2009 we released Angry Birds.

It took eight months to develop and we used a very analytical process to create the game. We tried to eliminate luck, but of of course you need a little luck as well. Every Friday we have an internal pitching of ideas, and one of our games designers Jaakko Iisalo had a design that was very different from the current design, but it had the birds characters. And everyone fell in love with the characters. And we knew we had to make a game around the birds.

Developing character #

Being here in Japan you have many successful character-based businesses; many stories created around characters in Japan. We’re very much driven by character based entertainment. Then we needed a story. And the Angry Birds story is very simple. You have an island with two species: birds and green pigs. The pigs are not evil, but very, very hungry. The biggest pig is the king, and there’s not really a lot to eat on this island. Only one thing is very nutritious, and that happens to be the eggs – and so the pigs steal them. But the eggs are very important for the birds, and you all know what happens next – the birds get very, very angry.

It’s a very simple story and it’s an epic battle that has no end. Pigs steal and birds get angry, and it goes on and on. It took eight months because it was a project in between our work for hire projects. There were only 12 people at the company at the time. Some things [happened] during the development process, for example, a very late addition was the slingshot. But now when you pick it up, everyone knows how to play it – from young kids to grandparents. Angry Birds is easy to pick up, and very difficult to put down.

Because of the slingshot and the game play, it’s a very approachable easy-to-play game. We often get feedback from people who say “I don’t play games but I play Angry Birds,” or parents with kids with disabilities saying this is first game they can play doesn’t require lightning fast reflexes. So pretty much anybody can play, and nowadays pretty much everybody does play, as we have a few hundred million downloads to show for it.

The rapid ascent #

Rovio's projected fan reach (click to enlarge)

It took eight months to make and on December 11 we released it. It wasn’t an immediate success everywhere. In Finland at time there were not many iPhones, and we’d tell friends and family to buy. But eventually it got to number one in Finland, and after that we got a bit lucky in Sweden in the spring of 2010, during the Winter Olympics. One skier Anja Pärson [talked about playing Angry Birds during her downtime in an interview]. And we became number one in Sweden then as well.

After that Apple took note and featured us in the UK app store and we hit number one there in spring of 2010. Shortly after that we hit number one in the US. As opposed to other hit games we went to number one and stayed there. We were number one in the US app store more than 300 days, ten times more than our closest competitor. Angry Birds is not a release-and-forget kind of game. We viewed it as a service, with constant updates every four or five weeks. And that keeps fans coming back and playing the game.

We just hit 600 million downloads, and it took Tetris 20 years to do 100 milion. It’s been number one for quite a while; in over 80 countries it has been number one. It has been quite a ride for the last two years. If you look at what we’ve been doing, gaming is where it all started, and it’s all about fans and about the brand. For us, it’s very important to keep the fans coming back, which is why we update the game [so frequently]. And we have a pretty massive update to the game today as well.

We have expanded to many other areas. It’s all about the brand. We don’t view ourselves as a games company but as a next-generation entertainment franchise around the Angry Birds characters. We’ve expanded into toys and physical products. We sold about 10 million toys, and about one million plush toys every month. We haven’t started here in Japan yet but you can expect many more [to sell] here. It’s really important to keep in mind that Angry Birds is really much more than just the game.

We have about 180 million monthly active users, and we have taken Angry Birds to all screens: smartphones, PC, Mac, consoles – our HTML5 browser-based game works well with Safari and all other browsers.

Changing with the seasons #

Last year we released Angry Birds seasons featuring seasonal updates. We launched at Halloween and [subsequently] did Christmas, Valentines Day, St. Patrick’s Day – the latest update is an advent calendar called Wreck the Halls. Here’s a video about latest update.

Rovio's Japan representative Antti Sonninen

That’s a small teaser of the main Christmas video that will be out in couple of weeks. In the summer we bought an animation studio, and are now working on series of animated shorts. You can expect to see weekly animated shorts next year. We wanted this in-house to strengthen our characters and expand on the story of Angry Birds.

We started to create very localized versions of Seasons. We did moon festival for China, and you can expect local Japanese versions for Japanese seasons. Expect to see a Japanese [version] of Seasons in the not too distant future.

Of course one example of what we’re doing [in Japan] is we have Antti [Sonninen] as our first Rovio representative here and you can expect to see a few more here in Japan.

We have also expanded into comics, with one for moon festival in China. Right now we’re doing one every day for Christmas, and you can see that in-game and on the web, every day there’s a Christmas related comic strip.

Unlikely flight paths #

We also started a book publishing unit. We have this cookbook which is selling well in the US, and you can expect to see that in digital form, which is main reason we got into it in first place. Rovio is about surprise and delight, and not many people expected a cookbook – but it makes perfect sense because we wanted to bring the whole family together, to cook some nice meals around eggs.

The famous Angry Birds dress, worn by Peter's wife recently

For the [Finnish] Independence Day party with my wife, you can see we’re also getting into fashion – so there’s no limit to where the brand can go. We have so many requests for these designs so we probably need to launch a line of Angry Birds fashion. So you’ll probably hear more about that later.

One thing we’re announcing today is a new partnership with Lappset, top players in the activity park market. There has been lots of talk about Angry Birds theme parks. Our Chinese friends were kind enough to build one without permission. But when you have a brand it has lots of incarnations. We’re launching this activity park concept, and we’re going to have thousands of parks all over the planet. The first ones are going up in Finland in Espoo. Already there are many discussions in tens of countries around the world so expect to see them popping up over the place. We’d like to build small scale activity parks, because the idea is not to send you to stand in a line for 15 minutes [like at an amusement park], but rather engage people in activity. It’s not about standing in line. It’s an Angry Birds magic place, and when you go there magic will happen. In Barnes and Noble in the US, today it’s Birds and Noble just for today. And by going there you can have special features in game.

So you will have special features in-game by going there – bringing the game and the physical world together – and we’re really excited and you’ll be able to see thousands of them pop up around the world. And you will see these in Japan as well. We’re also working with some of best people to make an amazing set of Angry Birds movies so stayed tuned for more in this area.

The first [activity park] opens early next year, then it depends on discussions with players and operators in different countries – but expect to see many in the first half of the year. Lappset is one of top three in world, and is doing well in Japan, Korea, [inaudible]. We’re very excited about this, and it’s different than what other people have been doing. It’s a combination of virtual and physical so it’s going to be pretty exciting.

On building other brands #

Our main focus now is Angry Birds. We’re only two years into the experience, and we think we can do more around that. We’ll will do other things as well, as we can take other IP and distribute on a massive scale. Looking at big guys like Disney who started with Steamboat Willie and added a few after that — I think we will do the same. The main difference is nowadays we have more tools to go much faster. It’s a bit unfair to compare us to Disney and other guys because when they started couldn’t go as fast. You had to go to a theater to watch. What we do is mostly digital to get 600 million copies out there, and it’s not so hard when you have distribution in place. The other guys had to do much more. We’re building a next generation entertainment company and you can expect to see other brands as well.

It’s also very appropriate that we’re here in the Apple Store because in history of gaming there are now new players – like Angry Birds, but we also have Apple to thank for opening these markets. Big changes are happening and it will be interesting to see how some of the old guard copes with these changes.

Nesting in 2011, flying in 2012 #

Angry Birds fan at event in Tokyo

If you look at this year we only released one new game, Angry Birds Rio, back in March. But this year has been [about] creating back-end infrastructure at Rovio. We had about 50 people at the beginning of the year, and it’s now up to 220. And now that we’ve built much of our infrastructure, you can expect to see five to six new games next year – compared to just one this year. Expect much merchandise, weekly animations, several series of comics strips, a ton of Angry Birds books – not the movie yet though. This year we added 550 million downloads in the year, but this has been very much a year of preparation for a year when we will really do amazing things.

I think we have 7 million downloads here in Japan, considering there are not many smartphones here yet. We take Japan very seriously, and that’s why Antti has been here building our organization; building partners. We’re off to good start. We signed a contract for toy distribution and physical merchandise. It’s all about the brand and the fans. Japan is an important market but we’re a small company and can’t do every thing at once. A big theme for us next year is Japan, and you can expect to see a Japan-specific version of Angry Birds. You’ll see sooner rather than later. There are some big Japanese seasons coming early in the year, so just wait and see.

We want to be the first entertainment franchise with one billion fans which would put us ahead of Facebook and some of these guys. Downloads and fans are not the same thing, of course, and it may take two or three years but we will hit a billion fans.

Henri Holm (SVP Asia) announces Angry Birds Japan

Yesterday at the Techcrunch Tokyo 2011 event there was a panel discussion regarding starting a company aboard, specifically in Silicon Valley. The consensus among the panelists was that a solid command of English and an emphasis on networking are critical components of a fledgeling team. This advice is simple and self-evident but all too often undervalued. Nor is it any less applicable — well, perhaps not specifically with English — to companies venturing out of their homeland.

Today Rovio, most famous for the unbelievably successful Angry Birds brand, announced at a small event in Tokyo that they will be bringing Angry Birds, merchandise and all, to Japan. With the panel discussion from the previous day still in mind and several years of working in notoriously business-difficult Japan, I wonder if Angry Birds will find the success they seek.

Some might argue that Rovio isn’t a new company and that it isn’t faced with the same challenges as most startups. This is true, but it is important to keep in mind that while the company may not be fresh faced, the game that made Rovio the company it is today is still less than two years old.

The official presentation by the Finnish company, while fun (lots of hands on gameplay), didn’t contain too many details. The takeaway points were that the company’s emphasis is on providing quality entertainment above all else. Rovio intends to develop Japan-related gameplay similar to the China levels released earlier this year. However, no level specifics or timelines were revealed. Also, Rovio outlined its strategy for entering the Japanese market with its merchandizing and licensing would be similar to it’s strategy elsewhere: develop key partnerships with local operators.

Even with sparse details there are several other indications that Rovio is doing things right.

First, Rovio has Japanese speakers that can assemble a room of potential partners and media groups. That alone demonstrates the essential characteristics discussed at the Techcrunch panel.

Antti Sonninen (Business Development Japan) socializes after the event

Second, Rovio acknowledges there are cultural differences and challenges ahead. The staff has experience working in Japan and is clearly aware of what to expect. During the presentation Harri Koponen, director of merchandizing, specifically mentioned that his attendance was to demonstrate Rovio’s sincerity in successfully working with Japan. A demonstration of commitment like this is key for doing business in Japan.

Lastly, Rovio is knowledgable of the market. After the presentation I was able to get Henri Holm, SVP of Asia, alone to answer a few direct questions on the company’s decision to enter Japan. He recognizes that the nation’s smartphone ecosystem is a natural evolution of the last ten years of advanced feature phone usage. Both the mobile phone culture and technology is prime for Angry birds. Henri, also noted that one of Angry bird’s greatest assets are the strong characters. Many who have not spent time in Japan are unaware of the immense popularity of brand characters. But Henri has spent several years in the country and is obviously mindful of the licensing and merchandizing opportunities.

On several occasions throughout the event Rovio made it clear that it was still in the early stages of entering Japan but was very bullish. So it’s too early to say if Angry birds will land successfully here. But if 500 million global downloads to date are any indication of what Rovio is capable of — and I think they are — then the outlook is good.

Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade for Finland, Alex Stubb shows off his Angry Birds skills

Peter Vesterbacka

This is a part of our TechCrunch Disrupt 2011 event coverage.

Here at TechCrunch DisruptBeijing, Peter Vesterbacka, CEO of Rovio Interactive, the team behind Angry Birds, was on stage just moments ago, talking to TechCrunch/CrunchGadget guy John Biggs. Peter was wearing a red bird-face hoodie and clutching several Angry Birds helium balloons in a not-too-subtle indication that he’s going to be talking about merchandising.

Upon arrival in China, Peter has been browsing around shops in Beijing looking at some of the er… unofficial Angry Birds merchandising that’s available from the pirates. But, thinking positively, Peter says he’ll look at some of the things the pirates are doing and telling his people that they should try that out. “So, yes, we’re pirating the pirates,” joked Peter.

One concern is the quality of the pirated merchandise, which can hurt the Angry Birds and Rovio brand. Peter related how he looked at some shoddy birdie merchandise in a shop in Beijing, and gently berated the shop owner for selling low-quality items.

And that matters a lot to Peter. “We don’t see ourselves as a game company,” he said to John. That’s not the first time we’ve heard him say that. So, being an “entertainment franchise” company, the quality of Rovio gear is crucial going forward.

Rovio Gets Animated

Animation shorts are “important” to Rovio now, and they’re working on full-feature animated movies that’ll take two or three years to develop. They’ve recruited David Breaux, the animator behind Iron Man, for upcoming longer features. Peter notes:

We have more distribution than probably some Hollywood studies.

So that’s something they’ll leverage with their cartoons and movies.

An Angry Birds Cookbook will come out in English and Chinese, and Rovio opened a Shanghai office last week. So there are plenty of signs that the company is investing time, effort, and money into China to ensure that its entertainment ventures – as well as its games – can take off. “We want to be more Chinese than some Chinese companies,” says Peter. How about Angry Birds cigarettes? You can have that idea for free, Rovio.

Don’t Get Gobbled Up Like Pac-Man

TechCrunch man Biggs asks the pertinent question: How can Rovio avoid dying out like Pacman, or vanishing into the Beijing smog of time like Tetris?

Peter points out that “We’re making the movies ourself [...] We care about two things – our facts and are brands.” By looking after both, and staying in control and strategic diversifications, Peter insists that Rovio can stay relevant – and profitable – for longer.

Also, says Peter, their wide distribution network keeps them in tune with users, and regular updates fly out to users quickly and regularly, unlike the stick-a-coin-in-the-slot inconvenience that killed off older games that lacked the magical platforms and distribution channels that Rovio is expanding and using today.

And with that, Peter walks off, his Angry Birds balloons trailing obligingly behind.

Now when playing the Chinese-themed Angry Birds Seasons, if you press pause you’ll be presented with an episode of the Angry Birds comic which also has a Moon Festival theme. There will be a new episode every day for the next two weeks in honor of China’s moon Festival. The second episode just came out, and here’s a screenshot:

If I recall correctly, I believe Peter said there was a Chinese language comic too — although I’m having trouble finding it, so now I’m not entirely sure.

Cooperating With Copycats

I also asked Peter if it was true that Rovio was actually seeking to cooperate with that copycat Angry Birds theme park in Changsha, China. He affirmed that they are, and what’s more, he said that the company hopes to build as many as 100 more like it throughout China.

Rovio’s approach to intellectual property in China is novel, and Peter boldly stated back at GMIC in Beijing that being one of the most copied games is a good thing. “It means we are recognized,” he said.

The company is aspiring to be a leading brand by next year in the Middle Kingdom. And to be honest, I wouldn’t bet against them.

Check out the video below, showing a news report of the copycat theme park in question.

We just received a quick note from Rovio to say that it has finally introduced its Moon Festival theme for Angry Birds Seasons. Rovio explains that this is its first effort at connecting with Chinese fans, though there will be more to come for China in the future.

The app description reads as follows:

It’s September and the moon is full and high as the Angry Birds head to China for the mooncake festival! The 3000-year-old harvest festival is one of the most important Chinese holidays, and the pigs think they can hide themselves in the midst of all the celebrations. Help the Angry Birds as they chase the pigs through 30 brand new levels filled with pagodas, rabbits, and red lanterns, lit by a dazzling harvest moon.

The game features a special mooncake level, as well as eight hidden pieces of mooncake to collect. There are lots of other special ‘China’ touches, such as red lanterns, pagodas on the horizon, Chinese-style hats, and a dark Beijing sky (just kidding on that last one!).

To get an idea of what the new theme looks like for yourself, you can get it now from the app store for 99 cents. Or scroll on down to check out some of the screenshots that we received from Rovio. There’s also a video promo below.

This afternoon, Rovio updated its Angry Birds Seasons game with the newest, Chinese-themed Moon Festival episode. It brings lanterns and mooncakes into the mix, along with the usual infuriated birdies and sniffling green pigs.

Chinese mobile gamers are getting a head-start on this game, but I’m sure international readers are keen to grab this update. Good news if you’re on Android, because it’s extremely easy to do since you’re not technically locked down to any App Store. So, here’s how to get the Moon Festival update – numbered v1.6.0 – for Android right now, from anywhere in the world.

• Go to the Chinese download site Downjoy on this link. Don’t worry, this is the Rovio-approved source for ad-supported Angry Birds games in China, so it’s a safe place. Also, it’s multi-lingual, of course. We reported on this Rovio Mobile tie-up back in May.

• Ignore the outdated icon on the game download page. The “v1.6.0″ and “2011-09-01” indicate that this is indeed the Moon festival update. Hit one of the two blue buttons, as shown in this picture. This starts the download.

• Finished! If you downloaded the ‘.apk’ file onto your desktop computer, just transfer it over to your Android phone, and install from there.

In China, Rovio also has some very seasonal merchandise, in the form of mooncakes, for this Chinese Mid-Autumn festival, which falls on September the 12th this year. Enjoy the Moon Festival update, Android gamers!

Here's the first level of the newest Angry Birds Seasons Moon Festival update episode.

Last month we saw Rovio Mobile give a sneak peak of its next Angry Birds Seasons update, which will be themed around the upcoming Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, along with new China-oriented merchandise in the form of mooncakes.

And now, for the first time, we get a closer look at these traditional Chinese culinary concoctions as they go on sale in China. You can grab a pair of bird-shaped mooncakes (pictured above) – with a pretty conventional savoury egg yolk and lotus paste centre – for just 98 RMB. That’s US$15 at the increasingly Monopoly money value of the greenback. They’re available from Rovio’s official partner on a Taobao TMall – take a look here – and come in a pretty presentational tin with a greetings card.

Mooncakes are a long-standing institution in China, and are generally offered in increasingly elaborate packaging. The Angry Birds mooncakes are fairly averagely priced. In China, even chains such as Starbucks and Haagen-Dazs offer up their own style of sweet or savoury mooncakes for this festival.

Not just mooncakes - official Angry Birds iPhone cases are now available on Taobao in China too.

Along with these ‘cakes’ come Mid-Autumn festival-themed Angry Birds T-shirts and iPhone 4 cases (pictured right).

This year’s lunar festival falls on Monday September 12th. At some point just before then, Chinese gamers will get world exclusive early access to the Angry Birds Seasons update – before it then rolls out globally.

Rovio is taking China’s 900 million Chinese mobile users very seriously, with an eye to tens of millions of those having the requisite iPhone, Android or Nokia smartphone needed to play the game. In turn, all those players are potential merchandise buyers. When Rovio partnered with a Chinese download site earlier this year, Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka made it clear he was aiming for 100 million downloads for its three Angry Birds games.

A security researcher has identified a new piece of Chinese-made Android spyware that can record a user’s calls on their Android smartphone.

This new malware taps phone-calls and records them onto the phone’s SD card or internal storage, storing the resultant ‘.amr’ files at /shangzhou/callrecord. In addition, this eavesdropping malware installs a configuration file that contains details of a remote server – ready for uploading your taped calls to the hackers.

China-based Android users are more at risk from this Chinese-made spyware, as it is more likely to be implanted into pirated apps that are available from numerous shady third-party app stores or BBS.

Note that this is not just one application, but a piece of code that’s out there on the web that a hacker could compile and attach to an app. It’s not available in Google’s Android Market, and no apps from that official source have yet been found with this spyware.

The security researcher who uncovered this malware was Dinesh Venkatesan, who works at CA Technologies. He warns that if this malicious code is put into an app, then that app will show some unusual permissions on the pre-installation ‘Do you want to install this application?’ page (pictured right). People who download apps from alternative sources should look out for “record audio” and “intercept outgoing calls” on the list of an Android app’s permissions.

It’s precisely because of such dangers that one app publisher, App Store Connect (ASC), recently teamed up with Tencent’s new mobile security lab. ASC distributes a lot of global titles on various Chinese Android app stores, and felt that such security testing and authentication was the best way to guarantee the safety, and authenticity, of an app.

With this particularly devious code out there, Android users are advised to stick to downloading apps only from quality app publishers on more official channels, such as Google’s own Market and the Amazon App Store – or also the Chinese download site Downjoy.com, which has an official deal with Rovio to distribute Angry Birds in China.

[Source: CA technologies]

This afternoon at the ChinaJoy conference in Shanghai, Rovio Mobile announced a Chinese-themed update to its Angry Birds Seasons app, as well as merchandising such as the Angry Birds mooncakes pictured below.

The update relates to the upcoming Chinese Mid-Autumn festival that celebrates the largest moon of the year, accompanied by the eating of mooncakes. Rovio says the update will come in early September, with China getting the world exclusive early release – it’ll be just before the lunar festival which this year falls on September 12th.

It’s part of a big push by Rovio Mobile to create a brand around its most popular series of games, and to also make itself into a broad-spread entertainment and lifestyle product company.

Speaking at the event, Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka said that they really wanted to create a specially-tailored product for Angry Birds fans in China – hence the decision to go with mooncakes, rather than the more ordinary plush toys. He added:

China for our company is the world’s second largest market. We hope to really fit into China.

Rovio has already launched a line of Angry Birds-branded clothes and sports shows (see the above image) which are for sale online (take a look here) in an exclusive tie-up with e-commerce site LeTao.com.

[UPDATE: After the event, we've added the embedded PDF ofrom Rovio (below) and some official artwork (top)]

[Source: QQ Tech news - article in Chinese]

Tencent’s new security labs are ostensibly for the development of their own suite of mobile anti-virus apps, but for the first time Tencent is opening up the labs to a partner. The deal allows ASC to get tests run and safety-certification slapped onto the apps that it’ll distribute in China – to reassure users of random Chinese app stores that the apps are both genuine and malware-free. It’ll be a seal of approval from a (um, sort of) trusted source.

Presumably, Tencent will also get the exposure of having its name tied to this new security assurance, which will gradually roll out across ASC-distributed apps in various app stores.

It was partly security concerns that led Rovio Mobile, makers of the hit Angry Birds trio of games, to strike a deal with DownJoy.com back in May, to distribute proper versions of the free-with-ads versions of the games.

Trojan Games

Mobile is a new privacy and security battleground, and one where Android has taken quite a kicking in the past year. Last December the Geinimi Trojan horse was found to be grafted onto pirated versions of popular international games in China, originating from forums, blogs, and obscure app stores.

And this year there have been numerous Android scares – some again in China, but also two notable instances in Google’s own Android Market. Also in May this year the DroidKungFu virus was found in re-distributed apps in China, with the potential to take over a users’ phone via some security backdoors in Android 2.2.

Indeed, with ASC’s new deal to get their distributed apps tested by Tencent’s lab, it could be said that it’s now a safer solution than Google’s own (lack of) approval process.

Peter Vesterbacka at GMIC 2011, Beijing

Rovio, the Finnish game developer that brought us Angry Birds, has announced plans to open a China office devoted to serving the local market. The company will also be opening stores in China where it will sell branded merchandise and clothing.

We were lucky enough to briefly meet with Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing this past April. During his on-stage talk, he explained that unlike many companies who become upset when their brand is copied in China, Rovio is quite pleased about being imitated because it increases the brand’s recognition.

The company has already partnered with download portal Downjoy to bring the Angry Birds franchise to Chinese users at angrybirds.d.cn. Rovio is aiming to hit 100,000 downloads of all its Angry Birds games in China, and that’s a pretty lofty goal for a foreign game franchise. We’ll have to see if the popularity of the series can effectively transfer to the Chinese market.

[Via Marbridge]

The image, above, comes from an AndroidCentral.com blogger at the ongoing Google I/O 2011 conference; China is a blank white landmass on the map, alongside the mostly uninhabited Greenland, and a handful of the world’s most war-torn or censorious countries.

This omission also means that China-based developers cannot sell paid apps on the Android Market, unless they can find overseas funding to afford a publisher in another country, such as the popular Camera360 app has achieved.

Android smartphone users in China can still browse and download free apps. A number of alternative app markets provide a mix of free and pirated paid apps for users to download which can supplement Google’s Android official market.

There are still some other ways of legally getting games, such as the recent Rovio Mobile deal with DownJoy.com to allow Chinese gamers to get ad-supported versions of the popular Angry Birds suite of games.

As a result, DownJoy.com now offers free downloads of ad-supported versions of the three cult classic mobile games: Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, and the original Angry Birds, via a special themed page on DownJoy’s site at angrybirds.d.cn.

On that page, anyone who wants Android versions of the games can direct-download the ‘.apk’ files – while those seeking the iPhone or iPad iteration get scooted off to the iTunes App Store.

Of course, Android users in China can get the games from the official Android Market in China – which supports free apps only – but not all Android devices sold in China come with the Market installed. That’s because a good many are sold with unofficial ROMs that have a baked-in alternative app store.

Not all those Chinese alt app stores are trustworthy, and might contain pirated and/or malware-tweaked apps (indeed, DownJoy itself is not exactly a piracy-free zone). So, for Rovio and DownJoy, the partnership is as much about users’ security as business. “In the past, other platforms that offered the Angry Birds game were all bootleg versions,” said Downjoy spokeswoman Liang Shuang. “But with this, Downjoy has worked through Rovio to provide an authorized official version of the game.”

Aiming for 100 million gamers
Rovio is aiming to have 100 million downloads of all its Angry Birds games in China this year, and this partnership is a move towards that goal. Although China has an ever-increasing 889 million mobile phone users, a small fraction of those have iOS or Android smartphones – so I suspect Rovio also needs to work out something for the Nokia version of its games (not included in this DownJoy tie-up) to hit that huge number as accurately as an angry bird hitting a sniveling green pig.

This event will take place at 15 Nokia stores spread across most major Indonesian cities like Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, and Medan. The final will be held in Jakarta on June 2011.

Anyone can follow this free competition by signing up on Nokia Indonesia’s Facebook page or by directly visiting one of Nokia ‘s 15 stores. The list of the store locations is available on Facebook. The competition will be held on Saturdays and Sundays from 3 to 6pm, and a finalist will be selected each week.

The competition offers prizes like a motorcycle, a trip to Bali, shopping vouchers, and as you might expect, Nokia phones and accessories.

This should serve as a decent sales promotion for Nokia, and spread some love for Angry Birds in Indonesia.

This is not the first time that the Finnish handset maker has harnessed the power of Angry Birds recently. Just last month Nokia came to an exclusive agreement with the game’s developer Rovio (also from Finland), to offer an exclusive NFC-enabled version of Angry Birds.

Earlier today we also wrote about Nokia’s efforts to bring more services to feature phones in the country, as it upgraded Nokia Life Tools with health information.