When Angry Birds Meets Transformers

Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, is seeking new avenues of cross-promotion in light of recent money problems. In case Angry Birds Star Wars wasn’t enough, the company announced yesterday that it's teaming up with Hasbro to create a mash-up of Angry Birds and Transformers...creatively named Angry Birds Transformers.

That’s right, after six months of original versions of their pig-slaying adventures including Angry Birds Go! and Angry Birds Epic (released just last week), it seems Rovio is at it again. And what better way to gain some attention than a new game involving one of the biggest phenomenons in pop culture? One containing two, of course!

The game’s release date has yet to be determined, but the tagline is already on the website: “Birds disguised as robots in disguise.” Well done, guys.

But wait! There’s more! The companies won’t merely be offering the mobile game. According to Rovio, Hasbro will roll out a Telepods figurine line, which can communicate with mobile devices, in September this year (read: more money for Rovio). Or, as Hasbro’s chief marketing officer, John Frascotti, explained: “We collaborated with Rovio to create opportunities for kids and families to experience Autobirds and Deceptihogs across multiple formats."

Nope, that’s not a typo. He said “Autobirds” and “Deceptihogs.”

I’m curious as to how successful the game will be, as it attempts to appeal to both Transformer fans of the 80s and Angry Birds lovers, who only emerged in 2009 when the game was first released. Will they take kindly to the new characters, storyline, and those...er… Deceptihogs?

If the past is any indicator, fans will probably be atwitter.