Like hipsters and Lana Del Rey, we’re all a little over Angry Birds, but it’s hard not to respect the way in which they’ve transformed a regular iOS game into multi-million dollar franchise. Now that Mikael Hed, Rovio’s CEO, has spoken out against the way the entertainment industry deals with piracy, we have even more respect for Rovio.
Speaking at the Midem Conference in Cannes, Mikael Hed claimed that is was “futile” to threaten pirates with legal action, and even claimed that publishers and developers should find positives in piracy.
“Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day,” he said.
According to Hed, it’s all about creating a fanbase, and growing that fanbase.
“We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have,” he said.
“If we lose that fanbase, our business is done, but if we can grow that fanbase, our business will grow.”
Angry Birds boss: ‘Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business’ [The Guardian]
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