Android fragmentation prompts Rovio to build lightweight 'Angry Birds'

Casual games developer Rovio Mobile will develop a lightweight Android version of its flagship title Angry Birds in response to a wave of negative consumer feedback. According to Rovio, many Android users report issues running Angry Birds on their devices, with older, lower-performance handset models plagued by severe performance issues: "With our latest update, we worked hard to bring Angry Birds to even more Android devices. Despite our efforts, we were unsuccessful in delivering optimal performance," Rovio writes on its blog, listing more than a dozen Android smartphones that the current version of the game does not support, including all units running Android 1.6 or below as well as custom ROMs.

Rovio said the forthcoming lightweight Angry Birds will extend the franchise to lower-end Android devices, but stresses the new version will not offer compromised gameplay or fewer levels, only "a game experience optimized for devices with less processing power." Rovio did not announce when the new version is likely to be released.

Angry Birds brings to life the epic battle between a flock of vengeful birds and the green pigs who stole their eggs--it boasts 180 gameplay levels, leaderboards, achievements and social media integration. In addition to its iPhone and Android editions, the title is available for Symbian smartphones; the iPhone version is priced at 99 cents, with sales now exceeding 7 million downloads. Rovio first introduced the Android edition of Angry Birds in mid-October, with downloads topping 2 million in the first two days.

For more:
- read this Rovio Blog entry

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