In last week’s interview with Rovio CEO Alex Pelletier-Normand, we spoke about the company’s confidence in the face of Apple’s ATT changes and Google’s own privacy efforts and the potential of blockchain gaming for the casual audience.
But there is another development dominating the games industry: the proliferation of mergers and acquisitions. Rovio is not known for actively pursuing acquisitions, but following the completion of Ruby Games in August 2021, Pelletier-Normand is straight to the point about Rovio’s future course.
“When we invest in companies, we’re specifically investing in that team. In Ruby Games, we really appreciated their team dynamic and, of course, their repeated successes in breaking into the US Top Downloads lists with multiple titles. We thought we could learn a lot from them, and they could learn a lot from us – especially with regards to entering the hybrid casual genre.
“Before our acquisition of Ruby Games [in 2021], we explored the compatibility of our separate player bases – how many Ruby Games players are also engaging with Angry Birds, and this compatibility already existed.”
More acquisitions forthcoming
“Even at the end of 2021, many of us thought it was going to start declining. But, in just the first few months of 2022, we had the biggest acquisition in the history of our industry. Then it happened again just a couple of weeks later. We’re definitely looking at more acquisitions in the near future. This is part of the way we’re going to grow, and a core reason for us to attend events like GDC: to meet potential companies for acquisition.
“But we want to make the right acquisitions. Rovio is very picky: our due diligence process helps ensure our company cultures are aligned, that it is a company that would benefit from acquisition and from adopting our central tools, and we want to acquire companies that we can build value.
“There are always new companies working on exciting new products with new angles, some we haven’t realised ourselves, and those are the sizes of companies we’re looking at. I would say it is an important part of our strategy going forward.”
You can check out the full interview with Pelletier-Normand through this link.