News

Angry Birds crashing into Starbucks?

September 20, 2011

If you're one of the 350 million people that have purchased and played the game "Angry Birds," you may soon be incentivized to make a trip to Starbucks to play the ubiquitous game there.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Wibe Wagemans, senior vice president with the game's publisher Rovio, implied that there may be a partnership in the works between the two companies that could include free in-game goodies and an in-store leaderboard highlighting the top players.

Starbucks declined to comment, but this isn't the first such attempt by Rovio to take what was once a modest little smartphone game and turn it into a media empire. That effort is well underway, with more than one million stuffed Angry Birds sold each month and a possible TV show in the works. The "play in store, get free content" strategy has already been proven successful too: Nook users that play the game while in a Barnes & Noble location get a free 99 cent "Mighty Eagle," and according to Wagemans, more than 10,000 people so far have spent more than a half-hour playing the game in-store.