Sega announced plans to acquire mobile developer Rovio for as much as $775 million. In Europe, that’s $706m, or £625m.
Rovio is best known for its mobile game Angry Birds, which took the world by storm in the early 2010s. SEGA acquired the developer to strengthen its position in the mobile gaming market, which SEGA believes is expected to account for 56 percent of the global gaming market by 2026.
Sega said that it plans to learn from Rovio’s live broadcast mobile game development capabilities and mobile game operation expertise to accelerate the development of mobile compatible and multi-platform support versions of Sega’s existing game IP.
All in all, the acquisition appears to have nothing to do with Angry Birds. If anything, SEGA seems to have seen an avenue in the gaming market it wants to explore further, and thinks the people behind Rovio have what it takes to make it happen. There’s also “Beacon,” Rovio’s internal real-time service tool, which could also help new ventures from the industry giant.
This isn’t the first time SEGA has attempted an acquisition either, as it bought Persona developer Atlus back in 2013. Does this acquisition mean we could see some solid Persona games on mobile? I certainly hope so, but SEGA also has more work to do, and it’s no stranger to mobile gaming.
The Japanese gaming giant expects the acquisition of Angry Birds developer to be completed in the second quarter of fiscal 2024. This means that the acquisition should be completed before the end of September this year.
