Rovio has an AR Angry Birds game coming to Magic Leap One

Rovio and Stockholm-based Resolution Games have a new Angry Birds game in the works for Magic Leap’s $2,300 Magic Leap One AR headset, making them some of the first game makers to release a game for the new augmented reality platform. 

The new Angry Birds title, Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot, takes the slingshot and blocky building elements used in the long-running series of mobile games and instead allows Magic Leap users to take aim at a virtual fortress constructed atop real-world fixtures using the Magic Leap One and its included motion controller.

Speaking to Variety, Rovio’s Ville Heijari dove into why Rovio eyed the yet-emerging AR platform for a new Angry Birds game, noting that it is somewhat of an investment in the long-term: “If we’re not doing this now, then we’re going to be late.”

“If you think of the original Angry Birds, it was a new experience on a completely different device, which was touchscreen smartphones,” Heijari told Variety. “Now we’re seeing new tech and want to be an early adopter there, too.

For his part, Resolution chief Tommy Palm told Variety that the development process was quite collaborative, noting that since January "we were talking to [Rovio] every week on the development side and making sure that we were very agile."

The Magic Leap One debuted its ‘Creator Edition’ this August, launching the headset alongside the pocket computer that powers it and a wirelessly tracked controller for $2,300. Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot, meanwhile is due out in the next month or so, with Rovio and Resolution expecting the game will release ahead of Magic Leap’s developer conference on October 9. 

Update: An earlier form of this story did not acknowledge that Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot is developed by Resolution Games in conjunction with Rovio.