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Angry Birds Developer Partners With Medio As It Heads Into Billion Dollar Valuation Territory on Astini News

Angry Birds-maker Rovio Mobile wants to ensure it does not meet the same tragic end of Coleco whose Cabbage Patch Kids soared to toy stardom, then skidded into bankruptcy six years later.

To that end, the Finnish game developer is looking to big data to better understand which game features and designs best resonate with its 300 million users. Today, Rovio announced it partnered with Seattle-based Medio Systems, a predictive analytics outfit, to help it test new game features, improve player engagement, justify those billion dollar valuation reports and achieve its grand goal of hitting 700 million new users by the end of next year.

Some days, players spend a combined 200 million minutes pelting pigs with their iPhones, iPads, Android phones and PCs. That gameplay provides a wealth of valuable data that will ultimately help Rovio keep its players engaged and coming back for more.

The Medio partnership complements Rovio's larger strategy of growing its Angry Birds franchise into as pervasive and profitable a brand as possible. The startup has already expanded the mobile game onto every platform imaginable, while simultaneously deploying a brand strategy, a la Disney, to craft a larger story around its game. There are now Angry Bird plush toys, sweatshirts, flip-flops, magical NFC stickers and cookbooks. In June, Rovio acquired Finnish animation studio Kombo and hired the ex chairman of Marvel to produce a future feature film.

That's a different approach from other game makers who typically use the success of one game to introduce players to a stable of new games. Zynga used Texas HoldEm Poker to introduce players to future hits Mafia Wars and Farmville. Rather than introduce new games, Rovio has only introduced sequels and new levels to the Angry Birds game. It's a risk for Rovio's longevity, but less of one than it used to be given the millions of smartphones in the hands of consumers.

And you can hardly blame the startup for clinging to its one hit. It took Rovio 51 tries, and a brush with bankruptcy to lay its golden egg. Now that it has one, it's doing everything to turn a profit and, finally, put those Cabbage Patch analogies to rest.

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