Updated: Angry Birds Reaches New Milestone And Rovio Is On To Even Bigger Things

Rovio today announced their Angry Birds franchise has reached a huge milestone. To date, the irritated fowls and those ugly pigs have been downloaded one billion times across multiple platforms. What does Rovio have planned for an encore? We’ve got an idea. First launched by Rovio in December 2009 for iPhone, Angry Birds continues to rule the mobile gaming industry. Since that time, the game has grown to include three spinoff games, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, and Angry Birds Space, with each now available for iOS, Android, PC, and Mac. Angry Birds has gotten so popular, Rovio’s merchandise arm now accounts for 30 percent of their sales, according to TechCrunch. And those sales have been impressive. In 2011, the Finland-based company made $106.3 million in revenues, which was 10 times more than they made the year before. In doing so, Rovio is largely expected to issue an IPO next year in New York and/or Hong Kong. The popularity of Angry Birds has yet to wane. Still, that doesn’t mean Rovio can rely on the birds forever. With that in mind, we expect a new franchise to arrive sometime, perhaps as early as this year.

The new Rovio franchise

What does Rovio have in mind looking forward? Perhaps the company’s future plans are hidden in plain sight. Rovio released a video to mark Angry Birds’ latest milestone.

Take a look: We’re thinking the boy at the end of the video wasn’t added by accident, nor were the objects around him. Notice the boy’s room includes a number of items that look interesting, including a balloon whose string is about to be cut, a toy truck, and a gramophone. Finally, note, Rovio’s closing message that shows up just about the time the boy gives a thumb’s up: "More amazing things coming soon." Indeed, all of these possible hints are interesting. Whether they relate to Rovio’s next franchise, of course, remains to be seen. Updated: After posting our article, we heard from 148app.com's Jeff Scott, who it seems, correctly suggested the next game from Rovio will include something to do with Casey’s Contraptions, which is owned by Snappy Touch. For this, Casey's creator went to Twitter and said this:

Before rumors start flying, Rovio is a perfect gentleman. Not a Zynga at all. Don't worry, all is well :-)
— Noel Llopis (@noel_llopis) May 9, 2012

What do you like best about the Angry Birds franchise? Excited about Rovio doing something with Casey's Contraptions? -- Download your Angry Birds games today. For iPhone: Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, and Angry Birds Space. For iPad: Angry Birds HD, Angry Birds Seasons HD, Angry Birds Rio HD, and Angry Birds Space HD.