FEBRUARY 20: Chief marketing officer and co-founder of Rovio Entertainment Oy, Peter Vesterbacka... [+]
Rovio has had more than 1 billion downloads of its games focused on its wildly successful Angry Birds franchise.
But can it have as much success with its next franchise? Peter Vesterbacka, the quirky CMO of Rovio, wearing an Angry Birds sweatshirt, talked about Amazing Alex, the first non bird-pig game from Rovio, at the GamesBeat conference in San Francisco Tuesday.
The Amazing Alex game (see video below), which is available July 12, will start with 100 levels. The game involves a kid named Alex and focuses on puzzle games. More animation, back story and books will start to be released for Amazing Alex, Vesterbacka said. More characters in that world will also be released.
The success of Amazing Alex will be closely watched as Rovio is reportedly preparing for an IPO. For investors to be interested, Rovio needs to show it can repeat some of the Angry Birds magic in future franchises.
The company has been working on a wide variety of merchandising and licensing of its brands, including books, toys, television and the like. Rovio is launching an animated series this fall.
Rovio is also expanding aggressively internationally. China is the company's second biggest market after the U.S., Vesterbacka said. The company is also opening retail stores in China. The idea is to make it easier to get its product and provide a great experience in the stores.
Vesterbacka said he wants the company to think long term in order to create lasting brands like Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty or Mario Brothers. "We're trying to reach a billion fans," Vesterbacka said.
Entertainment brands will start to emerge out of tech apps, rather than from Hollywood, he said. "We're building an entertainment company. You don't need to be a big Hollywood studio to build an entertainment franchise now," he said.
