Angry Birds not included in EA deal

Despite nearly all the reports going with the ‘EA buys Angry Birds publisher’ line following its acquisition of Chillingo, it seems that the multi-million selling feathery physics game is not part of the deal.

"We did not sell to EA, Chillingo did," tweeted the game’s developer Rovio Mobile tonight. "We own Angry Birds and all the rights."

Indeed, Rovio has spent the last couple of hours using its Twitter account to correct journalists who say EA bought Angry Birds’ developer, and making it clear that Chillingo merely owns the rights to the game for iPhone and iPad.

So what is EA getting for its $20 million plus extras? While Chillingo has its Crystal social gaming platform, that’s unlikely to be the main selling point – not since the launch of Apple’s Game Center anyway.

What it does have is a large base of players who can be marketed to, and an enviable record in talent-spotting independently developed iOS games – its latest hit is Cut the Rope, which notched up a million sales in less than ten days on the App Store.

For deeper analysis, head over to sister-site ME.