Don’t feel like you’ve had quite enough Angry Birds action on your mobile device quite yet? There’s some good news for you. Hot on the heels of its epic 2012 financial results, announced earlier today, Rovio has revealed that it’s bringing its hit Facebook game Angry Birds Friends to Android and iOS next month.
As with the browser-based version of the game, users will be able to take part in weekly tournaments against their Facebook friends in a bid to claim bronze, silver or gold ranking for each level. You can also send powerups to friends (perhaps if you pity their poor performance and want to give them a chance to match your bird-flinging skills) and there’s the option to brag on Facebook about your successes within the game.
Rovio hasn’t confirmed the exact release date for the mobile versions of the game with us as yet, but you can expect to get social with your egg liberation efforts at the start of May. Here’s a shot of the iOS version of the game running on an iPad.
Angry Birds Friends launched as browser-based game within Facebook in May last year, and Rovio says that more than 60 million Facebook users have installed it to date.
Facebook is holding a game-focused developer event in Rovio’s native Finland today, where some more detailed usage numbers for Angry Birds on Facebook have been shared. Angry Birds Friends boasts 1,200,000 daily active users (DAU) and 10,000,000 monthly active users (MAU). Meanwhile, its more recently-launched social take on Angry Birds Star Wars claims a more modest 550,000 DAU and 6,000,000 MAU.
Yesterday I spoke to Facebook’s Head of Platform Partnerships, Julien Codornoiu. He said that today’s event is part of the company’s drive to engage with the exploding social gaming scene in Europe. To illustrate Europe’s growth in the field, Codornoiu notes that 2011’s top-rated Facebook games featured just one European developer (Germany’s Wooga), while in 2012, the likes of Spain’s Social Point, Denmark’s Kiloo and Finland’s Supercell and Rovio all featured.
This growth is reflected in the resources Facebook is putting into European game developer relations. A year ago, just two members of staff were employed to work with the European gaming developer ecosystem, and today that number is 30.
Also read: Inside the nest: After 3 years of Angry Birds, what’s next for Rovio?
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Image credit: AFP / Getty Images
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