Once a popular game Angry Birds is now sidelined by the newer games like Candy Crush, Clash of Clans and Puzzles & Dragons; of these three, two games are based on the match-three puzzle formula.
Rovio has clearly seen the effect the puzzle games have and has soft-launched two new Angry Birds games ditching its usual slinging birds for match-three puzzle gameplay.
Angry Birds Stella Pop! has been released in Canada, while Angry Birds Fight! is available in Thailand.
The new games are both “freemium” titles: free to download, and making their money from in-app purchases of virtual items, reported Angry Birds Nest, a fan site.
Angry Birds Fight! has you matching birds to battle enemies quite similar to Puzzle & Dragons with PvP options, while Angry Birds Stella POP! draws inspiration from Puzzle Bobble, having you pop bubbles to defeat chains of villainous pigs.
Rovio is expanding Angry Birds into non-gaming segments such as clothing and toys, but struggled to keep up with seemingly lively competition in its core space – mobile games.
Recently losing its gaming head, Jami Laes and is also shutting down the Finland studio and laying off 14 per cent of its workforce after making “assumptions of faster growth than have materialised”.
