Just as Rovio was raising hype for the upcoming Angry Birds movie, the company announces it is laying off 130 workers as it revises plans in the near future.
It has been a rough year for the Finnish developer, which saw profits fall by half in 2013. Earlier this year, CEO Mikael Hed already announced plans to step down by the end of 2014, giving up his position to current chief commercial officer Pekka Rantala.
In a blog post, Hed explained that they had to lay off 16 % of their staff as they overestimated assumptions on how fast the company would grow. As an entrepeneurship, they explored multiple potential revenue streams immediately following the success of their flagship franchise. In these trying times, however, they will trim down operations to key businesses in games, consumer products, and media.
The upcoming CG animated movie is still in the works, and scheduled for July 1, 2016. The high profile voice cast is headed by Jason Sudeikis, playing Red, and includes Peter Dinklage, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, and Maya Rudolph. However, at immediate peril within the company is its educational initiative, including Angry Birds Playground, a project with Helsinki University. Hed says of these changes:
It is never easy to consider changes like this, but it is better to do them sooner rather than later, when we are in a good place to reignite growth.
We wish the best of luck to Rovio as well as their former employees.