Angry Birds to Attack DS, PSP and PS3

Angry Birds, one of the iPhone's most popular games, is moving past the mobile platform. In an interview given to British news source The Sun, the game's co-creator recently announced that the game will be ported to traditional handhelds the Nintendo DS and PSP, as well as the PS3 console. This is big news since games usually begin on other platforms and get ported to mobile devices, not the other way around.

Angry Birds is an addictive puzzler distributed by Rovio Mobile, available for play on the iPhone and iPad. In the game, some greedy green pigs made the mistake of going after birds' eggs. If you've ever seen a nature documentary, you know that trying to harm an animal's young is a bad idea. The birds get angry (hence the not-so-obtuse title), and go medieval on the pigs. Cartoony, cute and ridiculous, this game provides hours of addictive fun over the span of its 120 levels.

Angry Birds has taken off in a big way. The game has sold over 5 million copies in the span of 6 months, giving it the most explosive growth of any iPhone game. Those 5 million copies have earned Angry Birds more than $3.1 million in sales (listed as over 2 million GBP in the article with The Sun). It's also the #1 paid app in several countries worldwide, including the US, Russia, India and France. A list of the countries who love Angry Birds can be seen on the game's page on Rovio Mobile's website.

The game's huge popularity definitely makes it the most likely candidate for a port to other platforms, but it's still surprising to see a mobile game get picked up for play on bigger systems. Like the hand-crafted games in Xbox Live Marketplace's Indie section, mobile games are often short on polish and wouldn't translate as more than a novelty. This is why independent games are often free or priced at a very low cost. Even the least expensive games for the Nintendo DS are around the $20 price point, with PSP and PS3 games commanding even higher prices. It'll be interesting to see if Angry Birds impresses gamers who play those other platforms, or if the game's fans will be willing to buy the game again to play on an expanded system. If this game is a success, it could encourage independent developers to work harder on their products in hopes of bringing them to the big time.

Sources:

Derek Brown. "Angry Birds iPhone App Is All The Rage." The Sun.

Angry Birds.