Angry Birds (愤怒的小鸟), the infamous computer game, is coming to China.
The game, of course, is already here, with nearly 40 million downloads so far. But the company behind the game, Rovio, is now setting up a center for animation in Shanghai. The company told the China Daily that it wants to focus on the neglected feature phone market. More than 85% of China’s one-billion mobile phone users have a feature phone, like the Nokia S 40 line, as opposed to smart phones like the iPhone.
The Wall Street Journal reports Beijing’s chairman of VoDone, also collaborating with Rovio, said: “30 million new handsets every year will come with the game already installed after VoDone puts the game on its platform.”
As I said, the game has already become quite popular in China, sparking a flood of plush toys that look like the birds and pigs, as well as an unauthorized Angry Birds theme park in central Hunan Province (watch the video above).
Forums have been discussing various products on Angry Birds, such as this post on Sina’s games bbs about a new iPod stereo shaped like the famous animal.
Gaming forums have also devoted pages to the technique of playing Angry Birds on the phone as well as playing it online.
App games are big part of the mobile phone experience for many. China is already proving to have a huge market for games.
China Wangre asked some game enthusiasts and saw that their interests lay with lots of different games.
Bi Tao, Sales Manager, 30 said, “The APP games that I like are “Plant & Zombies,” “Let’s Golf,” “Angry Birds” and other simple and fun games with good looking graphics. The reason I like them is because it kills time, and it’s simple and fun. My favorite is “Plants Vs Zombies.”
Paddy, a 28-year-old engineer, 28 says he’s into games with a harder edge. “I like Call Of Duty6, because I like war games. I only play big games that is bigger than 10 Gig. I don’t play smaller games,” he said.
Whereas Ray Yu, Investment Analyst manager, says he’s more interested in soccer games. “I only like car racing games and role playing games. I also like soccer games, because it’s complex enough for me. This kind of game has mobile phone APP versions like 9mm, PES2011, Need for Speed. The smallest needs 500m,” he said.
Do you play? What games are your favorite? Let us know in the comments.
2 responses to “Game On: Angry Birds Maker Coming to China”
This is awesome news… the Angry Birds monopoly is going to get a huge boost from China, how can it not! its a great game been given to one of the most popular gaming countries!
You can also play the Angry Birds Rio version online for free now as well… and I’m still waiting to try find the Seasons version yet, hope one of the developers release it soon!
I like PES more than other games