On Monday Rovio published its most recent revenue statement for all of the company’s profits. Up until now the company has reported huge profits thanks to their Angry Bird franchise and all the games under that umbrella (including Bad Pigges and other spin-offs) as well as games published under the company’s third party publishing brand Rovio Stars. However this new revenue report shows the company’s profits slashed by almost half.
These are the yearly profit numbers Rovio has published and compared to what the company pulled in during the 2012 calender year, the profit in 2013 that Rovio made was almost half of what they pulled in during 2012. Last year the company made $37.5 million in net profit but interestingly enough Rovio’s sales actually remained steady, sitting at around $216 million. So why the big lose (if you look at it this way)? According to Rovio, 2013 was a ‘foundation building year’.
What they mean is that the company invested in new areas of business such as their third party publishing brand Rovio Stars, new animation and videos, and other projects, all of which are to build a bigger and stronger future for the Angry Birds creators. This also includes licensing fees for the ridiculous amount of spin-offs and specifically themed games, such as Angry Birds Star Wars, that the company has invested into.
Building on top of our games business, where we moved into free-to-play, Rovio set its foot strongly into the entertainment business. In 2013 we formed a world-class movie animation production team in Los Angeles that is already working on the first Angry Birds feature film, to be globally premiered in July 2016. – Rovio CFO Herkko Soininen via official statement on Rovio’s website
So while the sudden appearance of what many would consider a huge drop in profits and a horrible sign that the company could be in trouble, the reality is that Rovio is simply investing more and more money into fueling their own profit train. How this will appear to us in 2014 and future years remains to be seen. Rovio Stars has done well for the few amount of titles that it has published but Rovio does have a ridiculous amount of merchandise on store shelves as well, especially with the additional of Telepods. We can expect to see more of that kind of stuff as well.
Website Referenced: Rovio
