Rovio’s books team takes flight as Kaiken Publishing
New affiliate company continues Angry Birds books business, accelerates development of new storyworlds
Rovio Entertainment is thrilled to announce the creation of Kaiken Publishing, a new affiliate company that will continue and build on Rovio’s book business while also developing publishing programs for new stories, worlds and characters.
Kaiken will concentrate on children’s and teen content as well as comics for all ages, and work as the global master licensee of Rovio’s brands with a strong focus on Angry Birds. At the same time, the company will develop new storyworlds in the spirit of Storm Sisters and Freya, Rovio’s acclaimed young adult titles, while also creating publishing programs for other licensors.
“In publishing we’ve explored new ways of creating quality content for our fans, both within the Angry Birds universe and with new IP,” says Mikael Hed, who leads Rovio’s media business. “Now there’s a great possibility to take that mission even further as a standalone company with a clear mandate and focus.”
“Kaiken will be able to carry on Rovio’s successes in fleshing out the Angry Birds world, while also taking more opportunities to publish our own and others’ IP,” says Laura Nevanlinna, Rovio’s longtime publishing director and now Kaiken’s co-founder and Publisher. “As both a creator and a publisher we have the opportunity to blaze new trails in the books business. We have many exciting projects in the pipeline, and we’re looking forward to unveiling new properties in the near future.”
Rovio’s books operations began in 2011 with The Bad Piggies Egg Recipes cookbook, which went on to win the Gourmand Award for the Best First Cookbook in the World in 2012. Since then, the team has worked on creating and licensing hundreds of delightful, interesting and exciting books in 35 languages and more than 50 countries. The Angry Birds Movie program has many renowned partners on board, and Imprint, a part of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, acquired worldwide English rights for the first two Freya novels in 2015. The rights to the Storm Sisters series have been sold in eight languages.
For more information contact:
Kaisu Karvala
VP of Communications
+358 40 571 5990
kaisu.karvala@rovio.com
About Rovio
Rovio Entertainment Ltd. is a global entertainment media company. Headquartered in Finland and with studios across the world, Rovio is the creator of Angry Birds™, the casual mobile game that changed an industry and became an international phenomenon. Today Angry Birds is not only the most downloaded game of all time, it is a renowned entertainment brand that has branched out into animation, licensing and more. The Angry Birds Movie is slated for release in May 2016. www.rovio.com
