Sega is acquiring Angry Birds developer Rovio for $776 million
Sega is set to acquire Angry Birds studio Rovio for $776 million, strengthening its foothold in the mobile gaming space.
Rovio and Burger King Deliver an Angry Birds WebAR Experience
Rovio Entertainment has managed to bring its Angry Birds franchise to most mediums, with a couple of virtual reality (VR) videogames as well as augmented reality (AR) titles under its belt. In its latest venture into immersive gaming, the company has teamed up with Burger King and AR specialist Zappar to offer an Angry Birds WebAR experience through promotional packaging.
Utilising Zappar’s WebAR tech, Burger King diners can access the Angry Birds experience by scanning QR codes on various items and meals. These range from King JR kids meals and other box packaging to plush toy tags and even signage at select Burger King locations.
Once the Angry Birds WebAR title starts players will see three eggs appear. Waves of Hatchlings will then try and steal them with players having to defend the eggs by tapping on the Hatchlings. While this will shoo them away, players can also deploy catapults that fire slime to hamper the Hatchlings efforts. After a while player will be rewarded with a unique power-up where the camera swaps to a selfie viewpoint. This allows players to blow away all the Hatchlings, safely returning all the eggs to the nest.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Zappar and Burger King to create this unique AR experience for Angry Birds fans,” said Katri Chacona, Director, Brand Licensing at Rovio Entertainment. “The accessibility of WebAR and wide availability across thousands of Burger King restaurants make this an incredible opportunity to connect with consumers in new ways.”
Zappar’s ZapWorks platform has powered numerous app-based AR campaigns for several years with its WebAR technology one of the most recent features. It means that brands don’t need an app for a particular marketing campaign as it can all be run on the web. Expect to see this type of promotion become far more commonplace as brands connect with customers, especially as 5G-enabled devices allow for faster streaming.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of WebAR, reporting back with further updates.
Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey Revealed From Survios And Taito
Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey from Survios and Taito brings the iconic bubble popping series to VR for the first time next month on May 20. It’ll release for both Oculus Quest and Quest 2.
Puzzle Bobble VR
This new entry in the long-running puzzle game series celebrates the 35th anniversary of the franchise with an all-new entry that takes place entirely from a first-person perspective. Puzzle Bobble VR will feature 100 levels for you to aim, match, and burst bubbles. We’ve seen other big puzzle games make the leap to VR with great results, like Angry Birds VR or Fruit Ninja VR, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for similar success this time around.
Puzzle Bobble VR will feature a Story Mode with the 100 aforementioned levels that each contain 3-star ratings at the end, an Infinite Mode to try and get the highest score possible against never-ending waves, and an Online Duel Mode to pit your skills against an opponent in a 1v1 battle.
“We are excited to bring Puzzle Bobble to virtual reality through our partnership with Survios in Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey,” said Tetsu Yamada, President of TAITO Corp. “VR allows us to deliver a new approach to bubble-popping, allowing long-time fans and new players to experience Puzzle Bobble like never before and just in time for Bubble Bobble’s 35th anniversary.”
Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey is slated for release on Oculus Quest and Quest 2 next month on May 20. Wsihlist the game on the Quest Store now if you’d like. Find out more about the game over on the official website.
Let us know what you think of how the game looks so far down in the comments below!
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs Review – A Shooting Success
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs released in 2019, bringing the famed franchise into VR for the first time. Since its release, the game has received a wealth of updates and new content. But does the transition to VR bode well for the birds or does it all come crumbling down? Here’s our full Angry Birds VR review.
Angry Birds has been around since 2009, originating as a mobile game that spawned a bunch of sequels, spin-offs, merchandise and even a film series. 10 years on from the original, Resolution Games released the franchise’s first foray into VR with Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs. Initially just featuring 52 levels set across over four worlds, the game has received frequent free content updates over the last two years and become quite a beefy package.
In addition to the original main campaign, there’s now a set of 52 ‘spooky’ levels and a full custom level creation system, with the ability to upload, play and rate levels created by others. If you’re an Angry Birds die-hard who just got a VR headset, there’s a lot to love.
Watch Those Birds, You Dirty Pigs
For a game that originated as a 2D mobile game, the iconic Angry Birds gameplay has translated remarkably well to roomscale VR.
Much of the gameplay is similar, if not identical, in concept to the original game, with some small adjustments to take full advantage of the new medium. It’s a fantastic translation — not only is the core gameplay preserved, but it all works intuitively in virtual reality with little to no explanation needed. If you had never heard of Angry Birds before playing Isle of Pigs, you could be forgiven for thinking the game was an original concept made for VR.
For those who have been living under a rock, here’s the quick version of how almost any Angry Birds games plays out. The evil green pigs have stolen the birds’ eggs. To get them back, you’ll play through short levels that involve slingshotting birds at structures housing the pigs, with the aim of taking out all the pigs before you run out of birds. You can do this by damaging the structure and causing it to collapse, or shooting the pigs themselves. Given your limited number of birds and increasing number of pigs per structure, you’ll often want to go for the former.
The structures are made out of ice, wood and stone, and different types of birds work better against certain materials. The standard red bird is the all-rounder, while the yellow bird is effective against wood, the blue bird against ice and the explosive black bird against stone. The birds also possess power-ups that can be activated with the trigger after they’ve been shot — yellow will speed up and fly completely straight, blue will split into 3 birds heading in slightly different directions, and black can be detonated to cause explosive damage to blocks around it.
You progress to the next level by killing all the pigs, but you’re also given a 3-star rating on your performance. The less birds you use and the more of the structure you destroy, the better.
Shooting Into Roomscale VR
All of this is standard fare for any Angry Birds game. Where Isle of Pigs differs is the subtle changes it makes to enhance the experience in VR. Instead of playing 2D levels where you shoot towards a structure from one angle, Isle of Pigs gives you much more freedom. The levels consist of stunning and creative 3D structures housing the pigs, which can be approached from 2 or more different shooting angles.
There’s no right or wrong approach to the levels, but assessing all angles will often reveal secrets or weaknesses that proves useful. An alternate angle might reveal a hole that exposes a TNT block in a critical position, for example, guaranteeing a higher score.
It’s a perfect change for VR that adds a richness and depth to the strategy of the levels that’s not found in the traditional 2D versions of the game. Plus, it means that the game deftly avoids the need for almost any guardian management while playing. A common design pitfall in VR games is not considering smaller play spaces and the annoyance of constantly managing your guardian while playing, which can hinder full immersion.
By using specified shooting positions, the player almost never has to worry about the outer limits of their guardian or having to recenter it. Had Resolution Games not specified any shooting positions and encouraged players to simply walk around the circular structures of each level, the size of your play space would have an impact on your ability to enjoy the game and become fully immersed. It’s a small but absolutely sublime design choice that eliminates an annoyance prevalent in so many other VR games.
Pigging Out On Content
There’s an incredibly solid amount of content available in Isle of Pigs.
The main campaign is a quaint reintroduction to the traditional Angry Birds mechanics and gameplay. It slowly introduces each bird type as you progress through the four worlds, gradually increasing the difficulty and requiring you to think about levels and structures in new ways.
As a veteran Angry Birds player, I managed to cruise through the main campaign in about an hour with 2 or 3-star ratings on most levels. The difficulty does ramp up as you progress, but it’s definitely still pitched to someone who hasn’t played Angry Birds before, or is getting started with VR in general.
A newcomer would likely find the levels more challenging. Likewise, the target demographic for Angry Birds games has always understandably skewed to the younger side. The difficulty starts to feel appropriate when you take that into consideration as well. Nonetheless, veteran players will want a bit more of a challenge.
The second ‘spooky’ campaign that was added gradually post-launch provides a little more of a challenge. These 52 extra levels aren’t necessarily much more difficult, but they introduce some new mechanics and require you to approach things in new ways. Unlike a lot of the main campaign, there are situations where you can’t just brute force your way through. These levels often rely on one specific creative solution, which you’ll need to discover and perfectly execute in order to progress. In some cases, there’s only one method and you’ll just have to experiment until you find it.
While this does mix up the gameplay and prove more challenging, it’s not always for the better. One of the best parts of the Angry Birds formula is being able to find your own approach and feeling that wonderful ‘a-ha’ moment when you discover a flaw in a structure. Those moments make you feel smart, as if you’ve discovered a loophole in the level, even if it’s likely a carefully designed option by the developers.
This feeling is lost in some of the spooky levels, and it sometimes feels more like a puzzle game than one of strategy. Not all of them are limited in this way, but the ones that are can be a bit frustrating and less compelling. The Angry Birds physics and interaction system is also a bit wonky by nature — a structure will never fall the same way twice, even if you use the exact same method. This can lead to some moments of confusion, unsure if you’ve not found the right solution or if something just went slightly wrong in your execution.
That being said, this is bonus campaign is clearly trying to offer something different from what came before it. Had it been more of the same, I might have felt equally disappointed. It’s still worth playing through and it’s fantastic to have extra content, the levels just have a different pace of play.
Build Your Own Chaos
One of the major post-launch editions to Angry Birds VR was the level editor, allowing you to create and share you own Angry Birds levels. The creation tools are mostly intuitive (but a duplicate attachment like the one in Gadgeteer would be a nice quality-of-life addition to speed up building) and allow you to build crazy structures with pigs abound. You can pick which 3 birds will be used in the level, along with their order, and then test it yourself before uploading the level online for others to play.
You can browse other users’ levels online, with a system in place to rank ‘hot’ levels, based off the post-game thumbs up or down rating users can give a level after finishing it.
My one gripe with the custom level system is the absence of the 3-star rating of your performance found in all ‘official’ Angry Birds levels. It’s an understandable omission — each level in the official campaign probably has the threshold for each star rating calculated manually by the developers, and can’t be done automatically — but it’s nonetheless disappointing. The goal simply becomes to destroy all the pigs, with no motivation to go back and do better on a second attempt.
Angry Birds VR Review – Final Verdict
Angry Birds VR is a truly fantastic, intuitive VR title. For younger VR players or fans of the Angry Birds franchise, it’s an absolute perfect fit. The move to VR works seamlessly, retaining the gameplay from the original series while adding in some new VR twists that give it just enough of an edge to be different.
While I found both campaigns to be pretty easy, I think it’s important to keep the target audience in mind. Angry Birds has always been a franchise for the younger demographic and for them, this is a perfect VR game. It’s got a mix of interesting campaigns, a fun aesthetic, some challenging levels and huge creative potential with the level editor.
The main campaign itself was already a massive win for Resolution Games, but the mountain of additional free content that has been added since release makes this an absolutely fantastic package. This is a VR game that is easy to pick up and hard to put down, even if you’re an absolute beginner. Don’t sleep on it.
For more on how we arrived at this score, see our review guidelines. What did you make of our Angry Birds VR review? Let us know in the comments below!
Resolution Games Casual Titles See 500% Boost From Quest 2 Launch
Following the launch of the Oculus Quest 2 late last year VR developer Resolution Games saw a 500% boost in downloads for their titles, including Angry Birds VR, Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale, Acron, Bait!, and Blaston.
The news was announced today following a slew of milestone announcements from Facebook regarding their standalone VR headset. In addition to over 60 different Quest apps surpassing the $1 million mark, Beat Saber has now sold over 4 million copies across all platforms and Facebook is rolling out the long-awaited non-store distribution format dubbed App Lab. This is supposedly going to make it easier to get content released on Quest, even if it’s unfinished or in Early Access.
Resolution Game Sales After Quest 2
In the chart above, Resolution Games is demonstrating the massive influx in sales relative to how sales have been going the last few years. The vertical axis of the chart is blank so we don’t know how much these games are making, but it still shows a clear and enormous influx of new sales for all of their games. And in the case of Bait!, a free-to-download fishing game with microtransactions, Resolution Games says it has been downloaded 4 million times across all platforms now.
Since most of the titles in Resolution Games’ catalogue aren’t newly released the biggest takeaway from a chart like this is simply that a lot of people bought the Oculus Quest 2.
Granted, we knew that already, but seeing it reflect in direct sales and increased revenue for developers is extremely important for the growth of the medium as a whole. Many other developers also saw similar boosts at Quest 2 launch.
“At Resolution Games, we are seeing our titles reach significant revenue milestones more quickly than ever before, and I can confidently say that current headsets are contributing to it,” says Tommy Palm, CEO of Resolution Games. “The onus is now on the developers to continue to develop the type of content that more mainstream gamers are used to in order for VR to attract the broader audience that it deserves, which is what we strive for at Resolution Games.”
We’ve reached out to Resolution to try and get a number with regard to sales or revenue for their paid titles and we’ll update this story if we hear back.
Resolution Games Casual Titles See 500% Boost From Quest 2 Launch
Following the launch of the Oculus Quest 2 late last year VR developer Resolution Games saw a 500% boost in downloads for their titles, including Angry Birds VR, Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale, Acron, Bait!, and Blaston.
The news was announced today following a slew of milestone announcements from Facebook regarding their standalone VR headset. In addition to over 60 different Quest apps surpassing the $1 million mark, Beat Saber has now sold over 4 million copies across all platforms and Facebook is rolling out the long-awaited non-store distribution format dubbed App Lab. This is supposedly going to make it easier to get content released on Quest, even if it’s unfinished or in Early Access.
Resolution Game Sales After Quest 2
In the chart above, Resolution Games is demonstrating the massive influx in sales relative to how sales have been going the last few years. The vertical axis of the chart is blank so we don’t know how much these games are making, but it still shows a clear and enormous influx of new sales for all of their games. And in the case of Bait!, a free-to-download fishing game with microtransactions, Resolution Games says it has been downloaded 4 million times across all platforms now.
Since most of the titles in Resolution Games’ catalogue aren’t newly released the biggest takeaway from a chart like this is simply that a lot of people bought the Oculus Quest 2.
Granted, we knew that already, but seeing it reflect in direct sales and increased revenue for developers is extremely important for the growth of the medium as a whole. Many other developers also saw similar boosts at Quest 2 launch.
“At Resolution Games, we are seeing our titles reach significant revenue milestones more quickly than ever before, and I can confidently say that current headsets are contributing to it,” says Tommy Palm, CEO of Resolution Games. “The onus is now on the developers to continue to develop the type of content that more mainstream gamers are used to in order for VR to attract the broader audience that it deserves, which is what we strive for at Resolution Games.”
We’ve reached out to Resolution to try and get a number with regard to sales or revenue for their paid titles and we’ll update this story if we hear back.
Angry Birds VR: Isle Of Pigs Level Editor Updated With Online Sharing Capability
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs received a new update on most platforms that adds online sharing capability to the level editor feature that was released at the end of last year.
Angry Birds VR players are now able to build and share their own levels online, as well as play and rank others’ levels made by the community.
In December last year, Resolution Games added some pretty huge level editor capabilities to Angry Birds VR, allowing users to create levels with blocks, pigs and birds from the original game and fully create their own custom levels. However, the tools biggest restriction was the inability to share levels — user-created levels were only available on the device on which they were created, which made sharing levels with others impossible unless they used your headset.
With this new update, user-created levels can now be uploaded online for others to download and try out. Here’s what Resolution Games had to say about the update:
“Players have creative freedom to design and play their own levels featuring their favorite feathered friends, and now they can also share their creations, have them ranked by the greater Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs community and discover an unlimited amount of player-created content!”
The ability to rank levels is an important addition, as it should bring good and creative levels to the forefront of the browser. On its site, Resolution Games notes that if a user comes across anything inappropriate when browsing custom levels online, they can report it in-game using the feedback function or by emailing takedown@resolutiongames.com.
The new online level sharing update is available now on Oculus Rift, Quest, Steam and Viveport, with PSVR coming soon.
Will you be trying out some community-created Anrgy Birds VR levels? Let us know what they’re like in the comments below.
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Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs Level Builder Launches Today
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs is receiving a free update today which adds a level builder allowing you to create and play your own Angry Birds VR levels.
Describing the new mode, Resolution Games noted players will be able to use several blocks from the original game, including wood, ice, rock, TNT, fans, boulders and decorations blocks. You’ll be able set which birds the player can slingshot at structures, teleportation points around the structure, and, of course, place pigs on the structure to be taken down (including boss pigs from the main game).
As we noted when the level builder was announced, this tool seems like a natural post-launch step for Angry Birds’ first venture into VR, and will hopefully keep the game fresh for those whole played through all the included levels in the main game. Importantly, however, the level builder that launches today only includes local capabilities.
This means you’ll only be able to create and play levels on your own device, and can’t share levels online – for now. Resolution Games previously confirmed they are “aiming to launch an online version that will allow players to share their levels with the greater Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs community and even compete for most difficult, highest scoring, most creative and any number of variations.”
Until then, you’ll just have to make the levels on your own device and pass the headset around to friends to try out.
The free level builder update for Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs launches today on all supported platforms, including PC VR, Oculus Quest and PSVR.
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‘Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs’ to Get ‘Super Mario Maker’ Style Level Builder Soon
Resolution Games released Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (2019) earlier this year on every major VR platform, bringing the iconic mobile puzzler into the third dimension to pretty awesome effect. Now, the studio announced that there’s a custom level builder in the works that should arrive soon.
Resolution Games says the level builder for Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs is slated to arrive soon, targeting release during Holiday Season 2019.
By the looks of the trailer (linked below), you’ll have access to a number of basic pieces as well as the full cast of baddies to knock over, and a custom lineup of bird-pals to fling out of your trusty sling shot.
The level builder is said to launch as a local-only sandbox, however the studio is slated to release online functionality in 2020 which will let you share your levels with the community and compete for most difficult, highest scoring, most creative and “any number of variations,” the studio says in a Steam news update.
We were pretty impressed with Angry Birds VR when it initially launched on PC VR headsets back in February, giving it a commendable [8.5/10] in our review for its intuitive shooting mechanic, awesome graphics, and well-crafted 3D puzzles.
It’s since come to PSVR and Quest too. You’ll find Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs on Steam (Vive, Rift, Windows VR), Viveport (Vive, Rift, Windows VR), Oculus Store (Rift, Quest), and the PlayStation Store (PSVR).
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Angry Birds VR: Isle Of Pigs To Receive Level Builder Later This Year
Angry Bird VR: Isle of Pigs is getting a level builder later this year, which will let you create your own structures, place enemy pigs, and pick which birds to feature in your own levels.
The mobile game was adapted for VR earlier this year, and while it features most of the same basic mechanics as the original 2D games, the 3D capabilities add a few interesting new ways to play. As David noted in his hands-on back in February, the 3D VR environment means that, “You’re no longer restricted to firing birds from a single point and can teleport to different locations around the level. You’re required to lean around, duck down, and peer over objects to find explosive boxes, hidden pigs, and other secrets.”
A level builder seems like a natural expansion for the game post-launch – not only will it provide some new things to try out for players who have 3-starred all of the games’ included levels, but it also ensures that the game can hopefully live on for years to come with community-created levels.
Initially, the builder will launch as a local experience – your levels will only be available to play on the device they were created on. However, Resolution Games confirmed that in 2020 they’re “aiming to launch an online version that will allow players to share their levels with the greater Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs community and even compete for most difficult, highest scoring, most creative and any number of variations.”
The announcement trailer embedded above gives you a good idea on how you use the builder in-game, which works about how you would expect it to. You only need to look at games like Super Mario Maker to know that a level builder is a huge addition to the game – hopefully the Angry Birds VR builder is deep enough to create challenging levels and keep players coming back for more.
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs is available on PC VR headsets, PSVR, and the Oculus Quest.
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