Angry Birds maker hits No 1 with new brand

By Tarmo Virki

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The first non-Angry Birds game in more than two years from Rovio Entertainment hit No. 1 on download charts on Thursday, showing the Finnish startup behind the world-famous gaming franchise was more than a one-hit wonder.

Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds games - in which players use a slingshot to attack pigs who steal the birds' eggs - has been valued by analysts at $6 billion to $9 billion, roughly on par with struggling cross-town phone maker Nokia .

Rovio's new puzzle game, Amazing Alex, became the No 1 paid app on the key United States app store shortly after the launch. Amazing Alex is a physics-based game that features challenges that curious boy Alex has to solve.

"Launching new franchises has turned out to be tough for even the most successful app vendors, but Amazing Alex reached the Number One position in the iPhone Paid App chart in eight hours," said analyst Tero Kuittinen from Finnish mobile firm Alekstra.

"This is the fastest time to hit the Number One position in America - without help from being a sequel, a movie tie-in or an extension of an existing brand."

Rovio, founded in 2003, became a global phenomenon after it launched Angry Birds for Apple Inc's