Angry Birds Is Returning To Your Smartphone
Angry Birds is making a comeback! Here's where it went and how it will return.
This article is more than 2 years old
Angry Birds, one of the greatest video gaming series ever made, is returning to your smartphone after more than two years of absence from the App and Google Play stores due to technical difficulties. Now, the fans of the disgruntled creatures are happy to know that their favorite smartphone games from the franchise, including the Classic, are making a comeback.
Angry Birds developer, Rovio Entertainment, issued a statement on their website announcing that the beloved game will once again become available on smartphones, according to an article published by IGN. Though the statement doesn’t offer any end dates as to when the games might reappear in the stores, the developer decided to answer the fandom’s outcry for the franchise’s fan-favorite titles, including Angry Birds Classic, Angry Birds: Seasons, and others. The developing team also stated that it would probably take a while, given how Angry Birds titles were built using outdated technology and engines.
For those wondering what happened to their favorite versions of these games in the first place, most of the franchise’s titles, including Angry Birds Classic and Angry Birds: Seasons, were removed from the digital storefronts in early 2019. Rovio Entertainment declined to explain their reasoning behind the decision at the time, apart from a brief tweet and support response, both of which gave different answers. The truth reared its ugly head sometime later, as Rovio Entertainment apologized for their behavior, explaining the reason behind Angry Birds’ removal.
In truth, the games were removed due to the challenges of constantly having to maintain the highest quality of updates, which wasn’t possible with older games, as they were built on older technology, using outdated engines and designs. The mobile gaming landscape has changed drastically since the original Angry Birds launched, into a place where supporting the old games was untenable. This meant that Rovio Entertainment wasn’t able to keep up updating new versions of older games to keep them on storefronts. Leaving them as they were also wasn’t an option (and still isn’t for most smartphone apps and games), as games need to comply with all sorts of storefronts requirements.
There’s a hint of invigoration in Rovio’s statement, suggesting that a renewed effort to bring Angry Birds back onto smartphone storefronts seems like a priority. The company’s Q&A section dedicated to the issued statement explains that the re-uploaded versions of Angry Birds games won’t be the original games that were removed from the stores. Instead, the company’s working to re-build the classic games so that they may keep up with the regular updates and live operations that modern smartphone games require.
Angry Birds is one of the biggest mobile gaming franchises of all time, which debuted with the original (later dubbed Classic). The game reached critical acclaim almost immediately upon its release, warranting several sequels, ports, spin-offs, market merchandise, a televised animated series, and two films. By 2015, the gaming series has been downloaded more than 3 billion times collectively, making it the most downloaded freemium gaming series of all time, before its removal four years later.
