Rovio's Angry Birds become physics teachers

If the Angry Birds have taught us one thing in their pig-bashing exploits, it's that what goes up must come down. It just so happens that this common knowledge is grounded in physics, the scientific study of motion and matter ... and my worst enemy. Luckily for the mega nerds out there--who we pray will sort out this whole "How did we get here" mess at some point--Angry Birds has become an ideal tool to teach physics to kids.

The Western New York State Physics Teachers' Alliance (WNYSPTA) has agreed that the mighty iPhone game just might be able to hit home with the game-savvy kids these days, Pocket Gamer reports. So, Michael Magnuson of the WNYPTA released a series of videos each proposing a question, and a video of the Angry Birds animating the problem to be solved.

1. Make a reasonable estimate for the size of an angry bird, and determine the value of g in Angry Bird World. Why would the game designer want to have g be different than 9.8 m/s²?


The first of five is shown above. Honestly, I couldn't figure out a bit of these problems for you (writing is my strong suit--go figure), so try the rest over at Action-Reaction if you're confident in your number-crunching and complex theorizing abilities. A little familiarity with Angry Birds helps too, so be sure go play some more to avoid these insane word problems get yourself reacquainted.

Soon, you might score some Angry Birds with that Starbucks macchiato

Angry Birds Starbucks
"Hey, I'll take a grande caramel cappuccino ... with an Angry Bird on top? Yeah, that works." We doubt most Starbucks baristas would do this nonsense just for you, but you might at least be playing a lot more Angry Birds in Starbucks locations soon. In fact, according to Bloomberg, you may soon take trips to Starbucks specifically to play Rovio's wildly successful game.

During an interview with Bloomberg, Rovio SVP Wibe Wagemans said that his company is in talks with the Seattle-based coffee company to set up virtual goods offers and perhaps even digital scoreboards in Starbucks locations. Keep in mind, however, that this is the same guy who made lofty claims like, "We are now the fastest-growing consumer brand in history."

But what honestly leads us to believe that this isn't merely poppycock is that the Finnish game developer has conducted similar partnerships with national companies in the past. Take Barnes and Noble bookstores, for instance, which offered Nook e-reader owners a free Mighty Eagle download earlier this year--just for visiting with their device in tow.

And don't forget that you can already find a bunch of Angry Birds-themed retail items like plush dolls and t-shirts in the book seller's stores. More importantly, who runs the in-house Barnes and Noble cafes? Yup, Starbucks. So, despite Starbucks's refusal to comment on or acknowledge whether it's talking to Rovio, all signs are pointing at least to a dash of Mighty Eagle with your mocha macchiato.

And Starbucks would be kind of dumb not at least dip one toe into the Angry Birds nest. With toys, cook books and a feature film in the works, Rovio's flagship brand is huge. Not to mention that a Facebook version of the game is in the works, according to Wagemans, which would all but blow this franchise wide open. It's a good time for Angry Birds, and they're looking to share the wealth ... anywhere, really.

[Image Credit: Food Beast]

Would you go to Starbucks just to keep your high score above your fellow coffee snobs lovers'? What do you think of Rovio's immense push into the retail world with Angry Birds?

Angry Birds is the top game on Google+ Games, Rovio exec says

Angry Bird explosion
Where else will the Angry Birds crash land into and dominate? Nintendo 3DS? Xbox 360? Your scientific calculator? Who knows, but according to All Things Digital, Rovio SVP of brand advertising and analytics Wibe Wagemans said yesterday at the Mobile Future Forward conference in Seattle, Wash. that Angry Birds is the number on game on Google+ Games.

Granted, that's out of all 16 games on the platform right now, but some of those games were put there by the likes of major social game creators like Zynga, Wooga, EA and Playdom. Wagemans, formerly an executive on Microsoft's Bing team, went on to say that Rovio has grown faster in the past two years than companies like MySpace, YouTube, Amazon and Skype. He also said, "We are now the fastest-growing consumer brand in history," ATD reports.

When you think about it, though: Not only is the Angry Birds game on nearly every gaming platform under the sun, but the little wingless cartoons and their amorphous green piglet enemies have been transformed into plush toys, t-shirts, board games, cook books, a feature film--need I go on?

During his talk in Seattle, Wageman revealed that Rovio welcomes over 120 million monthly Angry Birds players across the myriad of platforms the game is available on. Simply put, the western world is hooked on Angry Birds (it's science, remember?) and soon so will the East, if Rovio has any say in it. Sure, that's less than half of the 273 million or so monthly players Zynga caters to on Facebook alone, to which Wageman said, "We haven't even launched on Facebook yet." Oh ... oh, no.

[Image Credit: FuckYeahAlbuquerque]

Are you one of the 120 million or more devoted Angry Birds fans? Do you think Rovio could compete directly with Zynga when Angry Birds launches on Facebook? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment