Angry Birds has come a long way since the original version of the arcade puzzle game was released for the iOS platform in December 2009. Today Rovio announced that the total number of downloads for all of the Angry Birds games has now exceeded 1 billion (with a "b") downloads since it was first launched.
Rovio"s brief message on their official website said simply, "THANK YOU to all of our incredible fans! This is only the beginning of our story, keep your eyes peeled for what’s coming up next from Rovio!" A trailer made to accompany the 1 billion download announcement seems to provide a hint about the next Rovio game at the very end.
Just a few days ago, Rovio announced that the latest Angry Birds game, Angry Birds Space, had been downloaded 50 million times in its first 35 days of release. Rovio itself is reportedly preparing to launch a public stock offering, which likely won"t happen until sometime in 2013. In the meantime, the company recently reported that for 2011, it generated $106.3 million in revenues, with earnings of $67.6 million before taxes. It also now has 224 employees versus just 28 team members at the start of 2011.