Sega Admits Acquisition of Angry Birds Maker Rovio Hasn't Worked as Planned, Blames 'Rapidly Changing' and Competitive Mobile Market

Sega has written disconnected $200 cardinal of its $776 cardinal acquisition of Angry Birds maker, Rovio, stating the "profitability of [the mobile] concern had fallen beneath the archetypal forecast" — firm talk for, 'this hasn't made america arsenic overmuch wealth arsenic we thought it would.'

Sega confirmed backmost successful April 2023 plans to acquisition Angry Birds developer Rovio for $776 million, with Rovio's mobile crippled expertise intended to assistance boost Sega's ain presumption successful the mobile market. The acquisition completed successful September that aforesaid year.

Now, successful its astir caller fiscal report, Sega Sammy said that portion Rovio was "a institution with beardown improvement and operational capabilities successful the mobile crippled area, a assemblage with large maturation potential," the "business situation successful the planetary mobile crippled marketplace [has] rapidly changed, with aggregate large titles emerging wrong a abbreviated period, and contention for lawsuit acquisition [is] intensifying." Which is wherefore it's present alerting shareholders of "extraordinarily losses and revision of operating results forecast."

"Rovio recovered it hard to beforehand its initially planned concern development, and the profitability of this concern has fallen beneath the archetypal forecast," Sega admitted.

Because the "recoverable amount" related to the buyout fell "significantly" short, the institution has written disconnected $198 cardinal (¥30.4 billion), fundamentally downgrading the worth of Rovio to astir $578 cardinal — $200m little than it paid for it.

Rovio is conscionable 1 of the companies Sega owns. It is besides location to Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment, Two Point Campus developer Two Point Studios, and possibly astir notably, Persona developer Atlus.

And connected the positive side, Sega's tentpole Sonic bid continues to impress. IGN's Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds reappraisal returned an Amazing 9/10 erstwhile it released successful September 2025. "Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds fires connected each cylinders with a fantastic roster, fantabulous courses, and lengthy database of customization options," we wrote astatine the time.

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.