Angry Birds Is Coming to Facebook
The popular game has exploded on mobile platforms. It became a huge hit on the iPhone, currently one of the best ways of getting a game in front of a huge audience.
Later it expanded to other platforms, it has over 30 million downloads on Android alone. Of course, the game found a great home on the iPad as well. The larger screen along with the intuitive interface made Angry Birds a favorite with the kids on the device.
At this point, Angry Birds is available for PCs, on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and Windows Phone 7. It's also going to be available on the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii.
But Rovio, the game's developer, is looking at alternative channels as well. There are real life Angry Birds toys available and there may even be a movie at some point.
So the fact that it's not available on Facebook, where companies such as Zynga are making a fortune from games, is surprising.
But Rovio says that it wanted the Facebook version to make the most of the platform's advantages. It could have done a simple port of the game and called it a day. And plenty of people would have played it.
However, the upcoming Facebook version will actually have a social element and encourage collaboration. It's unclear how Rovio plans to do this, but it's a good thing that it recognized that Facebook needs to be treated differently than other platforms.
The games that have done well on the site, Farmville and company, have done so precisely because they used the social aspects as much as possible.
Considering that Angry Birds is now available on any platform imaginable, it's surprising that it's not on Facebook, the site that's done at least as much for gaming as Apple's iPhone. But it's only a matter of time, Angry Birds is coming to Facebook and soon.
The popular game has exploded on mobile platforms. It became a huge hit on the iPhone, currently one of the best ways of getting a game in front of a huge audience.
Later it expanded to other platforms, it has over 30 million downloads on Android alone. Of course, the game found a great home on the iPad as well. The larger screen along with the intuitive interface made Angry Birds a favorite with the kids on the device.
At this point, Angry Birds is available for PCs, on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and Windows Phone 7. It's also going to be available on the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii.
But Rovio, the game's developer, is looking at alternative channels as well. There are real life Angry Birds toys available and there may even be a movie at some point.
So the fact that it's not available on Facebook, where companies such as Zynga are making a fortune from games, is surprising.
But Rovio says that it wanted the Facebook version to make the most of the platform's advantages. It could have done a simple port of the game and called it a day. And plenty of people would have played it.
However, the upcoming Facebook version will actually have a social element and encourage collaboration. It's unclear how Rovio plans to do this, but it's a good thing that it recognized that Facebook needs to be treated differently than other platforms.
The games that have done well on the site, Farmville and company, have done so precisely because they used the social aspects as much as possible.
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