作者：Steve Peterson
《愤怒的小鸟》是几乎所有人都认识的一款手机游戏。据Rovio透露，从2009年12月该款游戏在iPhone上发行以来，每天玩家投入于游戏中的时间多达3亿分钟。如今，这款游戏已经同时出现在25个不同平台上，包括Facebook和Chrome。
Rovio的成功绝非偶然，《愤怒的小鸟》是他们开发的第52款游戏，这家公司也曾经濒临破产边缘，公司员工的数量也曾经从最多时的50名缩减到12名。为了获得生存，他们必须想办法成为赢家，而最终他们也做到了这一点。不可否认，《愤怒的小鸟》的成功带有稍许的运气因子，但是主要还是取决于Rovio采取的正确方法。
angry-birds(from angrybirds-game.org)
精心雕琢好游戏：Rovio精心打造了《愤怒的小鸟》这款游戏，包括用户界面，图像以及音乐等。最后的游戏其实与最初理念带有很大差别，对于Rovio来说，只要能把游戏做得更好，他们愿意做出各种改变。他们甚至还努力创造出具有实际意义的背景故事，即让玩家明白为何小鸟会对温顺的绿猪感到愤怒？因为这些绿猪偷走了小鸟的蛋。虽然这些内容看似琐碎，但是细节在很多方面看来还是非常重要的。保持故事的一致性更容易为游戏创造更多新内容，即围绕着《愤怒的小鸟》能够再衍生出各种版本的系列游戏以及授权商品。
找到成功的方法：当Rovio将这款游戏推向一些较大的英语国家App Store时，前三个月并未取得突出成绩。随后Rovio便采取了相关策略，即首先占领较小国家的App Store，初期他们仅在芬兰获得数百次的下载量，随后成为了瑞典和丹麦游戏排行的第一位，并且也迅速占领了希腊和捷克市场。在这些小市场中取得的优秀成绩帮助Rovio赢得了发行商Chillingo的关注，并最终让他们成功进军英国市场。
推出创意市场营销手段：为了让这款游戏能够获得英国App Store的当周主打游戏推荐版块，Rovio决定在YouTube上推出游戏的首个宣传视频，这是第二款采取这种做法的iPhone游戏。经典有趣的动画形象为这个视频博得了超过4千2百万次的观看次数。
倾听玩家的意见和反馈：定时进行游戏更新，并不断提供一些新内容，以及更多游戏关卡。除此之外，Rovio总是会认真回答玩家通过邮件件或Twitter等方式提出的问题，并结合玩家的观点进行关卡设计。听取玩家的意见能够让你知道自己的做法是对还是错，以及如何才能让游戏更加具有吸引力。这个过程虽然需要投入更多的时间与耐心，但是它能够帮助你创造一款持久有活力的游戏。
无处不在的曝光度：开始销售某件产品，就要尽可能让它获得足够曝光率。《愤怒的小鸟》现在已经出现在25个不同的平台上，甚至是一些非主流平台如流媒体设备Roku。手机游戏需保持小型简单的特点，以免移植到其他平台时花费过多的时间和金钱。如果游戏能够同时出现在多个平台上，开发者的市场营销成本更容易获得回报。
抓住机遇：Rovio在2010年11月开始与Fox Digital展开合作，致力于根据动画电影《里约大冒险》开发游戏新版权《愤怒的小鸟：里约》。除此之外，选择在美国最贵的广告时段—–超级杯赛事中推出宣传也是非常有利的营销手段。当你获得了这类发展机遇时，不要犹豫，果断把握机会吧！
灵活的盈利策略：Rovio并未局限于一种运营模式。在今天的游戏产业中，多元化的盈利方式才是王道。刚开始Rovio只在iPhone上发行付费应用，但是《愤怒的小鸟》登陆Android平台时选择的是免费模式以及广告模式（游戏邦注：该公司每个月广告收益超过1百万美元）。现在，玩家可以在多个不同的平台上获得免费或者广告版本的《愤怒的小鸟》，并且Rovio也推出了手机计费服务系统Bad Piggy Bank。
angry_birds_plush_toy(from gadgetsin.com)
开拓周边市场：从一款热门产品身上赚钱的方法不只一种，授权周边商品便为这款游戏带来了超过40%的利益，该公司每个月售出1百多万件T恤以及1百多万只毛绒玩具。授权商品也能够帮助宣传这个品牌和游戏，这是一种能够带来巨大收益的市场营销手段。
游戏邦注：原文发表于2011年9月26日，所涉事件和数据均以当时为准。
Angry Birds: 8 Keys To Success
by Steve Peterson
There’s one mobile game that nearly everyone can name: Angry Birds. Rovio recently revealed that there have been 350 million downloads since Angry Birds launched in December 2009 for the iPhone. Players put in 300 million minutes of gameplay every day, according to Rovio. The game is now available on 25 different platforms, including Facebook and Chrome. Other developers can learn from Rovio’s example.
Rovio’s success didn’t come overnight; Angry Birds was their 52nd game, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, having shrunk from a high of 50 employees down to only 12. They had to come up with a winner if the company was to survive, and they did so. Certainly there’s an element of luck in the success of Angry Birds, but there are also many things Rovio did that helped capitalize on their lucky breaks.
Create A Polished Game: Rovio took a lot of care to refine the design, the interface, the graphics and even the music for Angry Birds. The game changed considerably from the initial idea, as they weren’t afraid to tinker in order to make it better. They even made sure the back story made sense; why were the birds so angry with the docile pigs, testers wanted to know? The answer came to the team: The pigs stole the birds’ eggs. This may seem trivial, but attention to detail is important in many ways. That consistency in the story makes it easier to create new material for the game, other games based on Angry Birds, and even licensed products.
“Licensing brings in over 40% of the revenue from Angry Birds”
Find A Way To Win: When Rovio introduced the game, it was a flop for the first three months in the big English-speaking App Stores. Rovio had a strategy, though: Get to first place in smaller App Stores, which they managed to do in Finland with only a few hundred downloads. They also went to number one in Sweden and Denmark, then Greece and the Czech Republic. This gave them a compelling sales pitch for lining up a distribution partner, Chillingo (later purchased by Electronic Arts), who helped Rovio get a big introduction the U.K. market (see the next item).
Be Creative In Your Marketing: With a featured slot as Game of the Week coming up in the U.K. App Store, Rovio decided to create a YouTube trailer for the game, only the second one ever done for an iPhone game. Brilliantly done in classic animation style, the video has received over 42 million views.
Stay Close To Customers: Give them regular updates, a continuous supply of new content, along with the many levels provided in the game. More than content, though, Rovio resolved to answer every letter and tweet that came in from customers, and even incorporated levels designed by fans. Listening to the fans lets you know what works and what doesn’t and makes the fans even more enthusiastic about the game. This can take a lot of time and patience, but it’s crucial to building an enduring franchise.
Be Everywhere: Once you have something that’s selling, make sure you sell it everywhere you can. Angry Birds is now available on 25 different platforms, even such offbeat things as the Roku streaming media player. Mobile games should be small enough and simple enough that porting them to different platforms doesn’t require a huge investment of time and money. When you’re available on multiple platforms, all your marketing spending gets more efficient at converting impressions into dollars.
One of the licensed plush toys.
Take Advantage Of Opportunity: Rovio was approached by Fox Digital in November of 2010, and worked with them to produce Angry Birds Rio, connected to the animated movie Rio (which was about birds). It was a brilliant marketing move, which got them an ad appearance during the Super Bowl (where ads typically cost $3 million). When you get a chance like that, don’t hesitate to jump on it.
Be Flexible With Monetization: Rovio wasn’t locked into one way of doing business. Diverse monetization schemes are a fact of life in today’s game industry, and committing to one only may not be the best move. Rovio went with a paid app initially on the iPhone, but when Angry Birds came to Android they made it free and ad-supported (with ad revenues now over $1 million per month). Now you can get a free or ad-supported version of Angry Birds on multiple platforms, and they’ve added in-app purchases from the Bad Piggy Bank too.
It’s More Than One App: There’s more than one way to make money from a hit product. Licensing brings in over 40% of the revenue from Angry Birds, according to Rovio. They sell more than 1 million t- shirts and 1 million plush toys every month. Every one of those Angry Birds licensed items serves to help advertise the brand and the game; it’s marketing that brings in money.（source:industrygamers）