Up to 260 jobs at the Finnish games developer Rovio could be axed, the company announced on Wednesday, following a worse-than-expected profit forecast for this year.
The makers of the Angry Birds games said it will begin co-determination talks over plans to cut 37 percent of its workforce, from all departments.
Despite record breaking numbers of downloads for the Angry Birds 2 game earlier this year in the month following its release, the long-awaited sequel has already started to fall in the charts. As the popularity of the games drops, so too could sales of the huge amounts of associated Angry Birds merchandise the firm has licensed.
New revenue models
Although Angry Birds games have been downloaded an estimated 3 billion times in total, the game’s financial model, where users pay a small amount up front to download the game, has been surpassed in the industry by so called “freemium” or “pay-to-win” games, which are free to play but in which users must make micro-transactions to progress.
“Monetisation is a challenge for the whole industry,” admitted Rovio’s communications chief Kaisu Karvala. “Unfortunately we’ve had a challenging year. This is the saddest day in Rovio’s history,” she added.
Rovio Entertainment, based in the Espoo region of the capital, now employs 670 staff, having already laid off over 100 workers at the end of last year.
The company said it will now embark on a restructure which will see its operations divided into three units – games, media and consumer products.
Movie hopes
The company is, however, continuing to pin hopes on the release of the Angry Birds Movie, due in 2016, the US and Canada-based production of which will be the only exemption from the employee negotiations.
CEO Pekka Rantala said that over the past few years the company “did too many things,” adding: “We must now put focus on where we are at our best: in creating magnificent gaming experiences, in producing an amazing animation movie and in delighting our fans with great products.”