Revenue down by 5.4% at Rovio, but games segment holds firm

Rovio has just released its full-year financials for the for the 12 months ended December 31, 2018, and consolidated revenue is down despite games holding firm.

Overall revenue was down by 5.4 percent to €281.2 million ($246.3 million), with year-on-year compatibility being negatively impacted by the release of the Angry Birds Movie back in 2017.

Games revenue grew by 1 percent to €250.4 million ($282.7 million) thanks to the strong performance of Angry Birds 2, which ended the fourth quarter with record gross bookings of €66.7 million ($75.3 million). 

That said, Rovio's user acquisition spending was also up by 12.9 percent to €78.6 million ($88.7 million), which equates to 31.4 percent of the games segment's overall revenue.

Meanwhile, brand licensing income declined by 37.4 percent year-on-year to €30.8 million ($34.8 million), again because of the large revenue peak provided by the Angry Birds Movie in 2017. The segment is now looking to build a licensing program for the Angry Birds Movie sequel in 2019. 

Moving forward, Rovio is looking to launch at least two new games in 2019, which marks the 10th anniversary of Angry Birds. The first of which, Angry Birds Dream Blast, is already on shelves, but the mobile outfit has more in the pipeline. 

It also talked up the release of the Angry Birds Movie sequel in August, with company CEO Kati Levoranta explaining the film should provide a boost to its licensing business while driving users towards its Angry Birds games. 

Curiously, Rovio is also looking to reduce its ownership in Hatch Entertainment -- the Netflix-inspired mobile game streaming service it spun off back in 2016 -- from 80 percent to below 50 percent. 

If all goes to plan, Rovio expect group revenues to grow to somewhere between €300 million ($338.7 million) and €330 million ($372.5 million)  in 2019, with the second quarter providing the largest revenue growth and profit contribution.