Angry Birds Dev Fires Back at Nintendo, Console Games

Peter Vesterbacka, the boss atAngry Birdsdeveloper Rovio, finds it"interesting"that games like his company's have come under attack by Nintendo. Then again, Vesterbacka says if he were selling"$49 pieces of plastic to people"he would be worried, too.

Although he never once singled out a particular platform, developer, or game, it was pretty clear that comments made by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata during hiskeynoteat GDC were aimed at cheap mobile games like Angry Birds. He talked about how inexpensive, disposable games were destroying the value of the products being made by companies like Nintendo."The fact is, what we produce has value, and we should protect that value,"he said.

Iwata hasn't been the only one to attack Angry Birds or games of its ilk, though he is certainly the highest profile person to do so. And Angry Birds, being the massive success that it is -- it's been downloaded more than 100 million times already -- usually ends up taking the brunt of these knocks.

"It's interesting to see people like Nintendo saying smartphones are destroying the games industry,"Vesterbacka toldMCV."Of course, if I was trying to sell a $49 pieces {sic} of plastic to people then yes, I'd be worried too. But I think it's a good sign that people are concerned -- because from my point of view we're doing something right."

"Games consoles for us are just like launching on a new smartphone platform,"he added."We don't see..."he started, before continuing,"Look, the console market is important, but it's also... It's not dying, but not the fastest growing platform out there. So we don't see it the way others do. A lot of people in the games industry, they think the 'real' games are on consoles. You're only a 'real' games company if you do a big budget game. But we don't have that inferiority complex."

Angry Birds has already appeared on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, and there have been talks of also bringing it to Xbox 360 and DS. The latter platform would be interesting given that Nintendo isn't especially high on the prospect of games that only cost $0.99. But one of the hurdles of bringing Angry Birds to consoles is the inability to frequently update console games, calling the restriction a"legacy way of thinking."

"There is no reason why, when you do digital distribution on console, you couldn't do frequent updates,"he explained."It's just a legacy way of thinking. And if the consoles want to stay relevant they have to start mimicking what's going on around them on app stores, smartphones and online. It's the only way. because people expect games to stay fresh.

"If you pay $59 or $69 dollars and you get no updates -- but you pay 99 cents for a game in the App Store and get updates every month, then it sets the expectations higher. So the pressure is definitely on those guys."

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