Legendary video games firm behind Sonic The Hedgehog and numerous different hits – has agreed, this morning to purchase Rovio – dwelling to the Indignant Birds cell sport and film franchise for a complete worth of 706 milion euros. 

After a weekend of cast-iron hearsay that every one however confirmed the deal, the small print at the moment are official (at a worth barely in need of the $1bn rumoured earlier).

The deal entails Sega buying the whole lot of Rovio’s excellent shares and choices at 9.25 euros per share and 1.48 euros per possibility with Sega’s bigger guardian firm Sega Sammy Holdings footing the invoice. The deal is described as a pleasant takeover with the complete backing of Rovio’s board of administrators and is anticipated to be full within the second quarter of the 2024 monetary yr.

Particulars of the deal clearly spell out Rovio’s attraction to Sega, with the gaming big stating that they “firmly consider that it’s crucial to proceed investing in sport improvement and working capabilities” and that Rovio’s acquisition will “additional strengthen our place within the fast-growing cell and international gaming market.”

There’s even point out of a “development technique to take a position as much as ¥250 billion in the course of the five-year interval ending FY2026/3” with Sega “exploring funding alternatives within the client space to strengthen its improvement capabilities in addition to to create new ecosystems.” So the Sega spending spree is probably not over but.

It is all about cell

The assertion goes on: “Via the acquisition, the corporate goals to take-in Rovio’s live-operated cell sport improvement capabilities and experience in cell sport operation, to speed up the event of mobile-compatible and multi-platform-supported model of Sega’s current sport IPs, thereby strengthening and additional accelerating international enlargement of Sega’s sport portfolio.”

It actually couldn’t be plainer that in buying Rovio, Sega simply took possession of Rovio’s cell gaming platform, Beacon and a world class live-ops operation with the talent and capability to show any of Sega’s properties – be they traditional, current or in improvement – into successful cell sport.

They usually make a imply plushy too…

After which there’s the small matter of the Indignant Birds franchise. Whereas it hasn’t escaped cell video games trade watchers that Rovio have somewhat did not department out past it’s bird-flinging smash hits and sequels (together with two mainstream hollywood films) Indignant Birds continues to be formally huge. Purple’s First Flight – a remake of the very first Indignant Birds sport continues to be prime 10 within the ‘paid for’ charts proper now.

With Sega’s background in console and arcade video games the deal may simply as simply movement each methods with Indignant Birds discovering success on codecs apart from cell. Indignant Birds Vs Sonic? It wouldn’t be too onerous to think about now wouldn’t it?