To coincide with the announcement that Angry Birds is coming to Facebook, Penn-olson.com snagged an exclusive interview with Rovio’s Mighty Eagle, Peter Vesterbacka, and, Henri Holm, SVP of Rovio Asia. Interviews and articles like this are nothing new, but this one does include some interesting tidbits, including talk about Angry Birds Sync and a brand new version of Angry Birds that sounds very familiar. I highly recommend reading the full article by Joshua Kevin on Penn-olson.com.
“Angry Birds Local” Edition Coming Soon
Rovio also plans to release more games than it did last year including making a more localized game with local content. Rovio released a Year of the Dragon update to Angry Birds Seasons for the Chinese New Year where it has a new theme, animations, and of course, a swooping dragon as a ‘power-up.’ The team is planning to do something like this in Indonesia, and that’s another part of the reason for the visit here. The forthcoming game will include local content such as Batik, Garuda, or even Komodo so that it has a more local touch filled with Indonesian cultural references. This looks set to be a separate, new Angry Birds game, and not just an update to Seasons.
I think I’ve heard this idea before…oh yeah, check out our Angry Birds World Travel concept that we posted September of 2011. I’m not saying this is our idea exactly, and it’s entirely feasible that Rovio had already thought of this, but nonetheless it’s cool to see an idea we had coming to fruition. I really hope that every “local” version is available to all markets in one new app. Not only would it be more fun for everyone, but it would also help people learn about other cultures around the world.
Angry Birds Sync
In the near future, Rovio is also working to bring a seamless and connected experience through any platform you play Angry Birds on. For example, if you start playing Angry Birds on your iPad, you can continue your progress on your Samsung TV or on a PC in an internet cafe.
Sounds like Angry Birds Sync is close(r) to becoming a reality. That said, I personally believe there are still many hurdles to overcome. For example, for a sync system to truly work I would assume all levels would need to be the same across all platforms. They currently aren’t. Also, all platforms would need to be running the same version, or close to it. I mean, how would you sync your Year the Dragon progress if said update wasn’t currently available on your other devices? I don’t know, maybe there is a solution to this that I’m not seeing. Regardless, I am happy that it’s still in the works to me this is a must have.
Has anyone heard about updates to the AB Local editions from Rovio since this post in January 2012?
sorry to to necro this, but I’d not seen this Sync news before. I was just thinking how useful it’d be to have some sort of “cloud” setup where your progress could be ported between devices, so imagine my surprise when it’d already been thought of :) Not too surprising that it’s been a struggle to come to fruition though. Versioning could be a problem, as noted…
AB Local could be nifty too! If not all available in one app to begin with, episodes could be released in the local market first, and every so often you could get updates from other areas.