Rovio’s ‘Angry Birds Friends’ Comes To iOS & Android

Rovio on Wednesday announced plans to take its Angry Birds Friends game from Facebook to Android and iOS devices. The announcement marks the first time that Rovio has created a game for Facebook first and then moved it to mobile devices.

Angry Birds Friends has picked up 60 million installs since it debuted on Facebook. The game currently includes more than 15 million monthly active users via the Facebook desktop platform.

Rovio made the announcement during a Facebook mobile event in Helsinki.

The Angry Birds and Bad Piggies developer made the announcement on the same day it announced $195 million in revenues. That revenue shows that 45% of the company’s money is now coming from Rovio’s non-gaming business, specifically revenue from the sale of various merchandising.

The move to take Angry Birds Friends from the Facebook platform to mobile devices matches a recent trend in which the most popular online games are moved to a “free-to-download” model. The idea behind the shift is that users will be more willing to buy in-app purchases on mobile devices.

Facebook Gaming partnerships head Julien Codornoiu tells TechCrunch:

“Rovio I think is very inspired by Supercell, which is absoutely ruling the App Store when it comes to top grossing apps. No one caares about paid as much as they do about grossing.”

Rovio received a lot of attention from Facebook in 2012 with the networks top three games all arriving by way of Angry Birds editions.

It was only 18 months ago that Rovio finally embraced social gaming, launching its first ever Facebook title. Attracting Facebook gamers has never been more important. The social network recently announced that more than 250 million monthly gamers now call the social network home. Moving to social gaming became easier after Facebook and Words With Friends developer Zynga severed their long-standing exclusivity contract.

Are you excited by the move of Angry Birds Friends to the iOS and Android platforms?

[Image via LazyTechGuys]