Last week, Rovio announced Angry Birds 2, calling it "the mother of all sequels" to the original game that"s spawned all sorts of themed spin-offs over the years. Indeed, Angry Birds has become one of the biggest mobile gaming properties in the world - there"s even a blockbuster Hollywood movie on the way - but it looks like the new game in the series won"t be making its way to Microsoft"s app store any time soon.
The original Angry Birds wasn"t available on Windows Phone 7 when the OS launched in late 2010, but it was eventually released in mid-2011. Since then, Rovio has gradually brought more of the game"s spin-offs to Windows Phone, including the likes of Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Space, and variants like Bad Piggies.
But with less than 4 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, it"s tough for any developer to justify building software for the Windows Phone OS. Rovio has previously stated that Angry Birds 2 will come to iOS and Android, but it has since explicitly ruled out a launch for Windows devices... for now, at least.
Rovio"s support team told WMPU:
Unfortunately, Angry Birds 2 will not be released for Windows Phones. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and hope that you have a chance to play the game on one of the supported platforms, such as Android or iOS!
While that seems pretty definitive, Rovio exec and "Mighty Eagle" Peter Vesterbacka appeared to leave the door open for a potential launch in the future. When asked to confirm the support rep"s statement that the new game won"t be released for Windows devices, he replied: "for the time being, yes".
With Windows 10 on the horizon, things may well change - and it"s certainly possible that Rovio plans to wait until after Windows 10 Mobile launches later this year before it brings its game to the new OS.
As we noted earlier this week, the Windows "app-gap" remains a notable issue for the platform. Are there any apps that you"re still waiting for on Windows devices? Have your say in our latest discussion!
Source: WMPU