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Angry Birds hits 1 billion downloads

Rovio's bird-flinging portable super-game franchise reaches new download milestone following March launch of Angry Birds Space.

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The Angry Birds series has catapulted into a new stratosphere. Finnish developer Rovio Mobile today announced that games in the bird-flinging, pig-destroying portable strategy game franchise have been downloaded more than 1 billion times.

Angry Birds have now flocked to over a billion devices.
Angry Birds have now flocked to over a billion devices.

The milestone comes after the March release of the game's first true sequel, Angry Birds Space, which blasted off to 10 million downloads in just three days. That game includes a new low-gravity location, as well as additional bird types.

Angry Birds originally launched in 2009 and is now available on a range of platforms, including iOS and Android devices, the PlayStation 3, and Web browsers like Google Chrome.

Some gamers may shrug off Angry Birds as a simple way to pass time, but Legend of Zelda and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto praised the game last month, saying he admired its simple yet deep control scheme.

Despite the widespread success of Angry Birds, Rovio said in January that it is in no rush to follow the likes of LinkedIn and Zynga in filing for an initial public offering (IPO).

"This year is way too early for an IPO; there are too many open things, and we are in a very early stage of the Angry Birds life cycle," said Rovio marketing chief Peter Vesterbacka.

For more on the latest Angry Birds title, check out GameSpot's review of Angry Birds Space.

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