Angry Birds creator Rovio acquires Futuremark Games Studio

Angry Birds publisher Rovio Entertainment has acquired its fellow Finnish game development house, Futuremark Games Studio, in order to get some new talent.

Rovio, which just launched its Angry Birds Space mobile game blockbuster, is buying the game-making division of benchmark software creator Futuremark.

“They are an incredibly talented and experienced team, and we are thrilled to have them on board,” said Mikael Hed, Rovio Entertainment’s chief executive, in a statement. “Rovio’s success is founded on the excellence of our team, and Futuremark Games Studio is going to be a superb addition.”

The deal will help Rovio make more games and allow Futuremark to focus on its professional benchmarking of 3D hardware and 3D games.

The deal is the second acquisition for Rovio in the past year, after it bought the Kombo Animation Studio last summer. Rovio is building entertainment, publishing, animation and retail arms and now has more than 300 people in Espoo and Tampere, Finland and Shanghai. The value of the deal wasn’t disclosed.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.