Rovio: Less than half our staff are working on games

Rovio's executive vice president of games has revealed that fewer than half the studio's 800 members of staff are working on games these days, following the Angry Birds brand's transition from game to entertainment brand.

I think less than half are working on games now," Jami Laes told GamesBeat.

"But games will always be at the core of Rovio. That's our heritage. The majority of the folks who have come from different industries to work on different areas of our business, they all experienced the game as their first encounter with the brand. When it comes to future franchises, they'll most likely see the light of day from the games department, rather than another area of our business."

"Angry Birds is the most important thing for us, but it can't be the only thing for us"

Laes also reiterated that the company has now seen over two billion downloads for its portfolio and spoke about the future of Rovio, promising more furious fowl themed products over the next couple of years, but also a focus on innovation.

"We haven't broken out anything big because we've been building a lot of things in 2013, and in the previous years. We're building the organisation, building new capabilities, new processes, so that we can have a bigger emphasis on fulfilling that dream of becoming an entertainment powerhouse," he said.

"The bedrock of the company is our focus on building new stuff. In the next couple of years you'll see new things come out of Rovio. We want to have a balanced diet - birds, pigs, and more. The way we see it, there is no brand, and yet there's nothing but the brand, in a Zen type of way. Angry Birds is the most important thing for us, but it can't be the only thing for us."

Rovio recently appointed Crytek's Katharina Hautz as senior producer at its Stockholm studio.