Were you part of the Angry Birds craze that swept the world when it first came out, and the idea of flinging birds with different abilities to foil the plans of green colored pigs kept you entertained for hours on end? Well, eventually the Angry Birds franchise must have run out of steam, although it is still a hugely popular download for mobile devices, but you would not see crowds drawn to it as though it was a rare Pokemon discovered in a public square for all and sundry to catch. Rovio of Finland has decided to move on from its Angry Birds franchise, coming up with a new company that they call Hatch Entertainment. Hatch Entertainment intends to be the Spotify of the mobile gaming industry. In other words, Hatch Entertainment will deliver a video streaming service for the masses.
Sounds like a decent idea too, especially when you take into consideration how far mobile networks have come today by offering a far higher bandwidth for everyone than before, with mobile devices that are also full well capable of harnessing such technology.
Hatch Entertainment will continue the work of evolving the subscription-based service in the realm of mobile gaming. Hatch officials did mention that they will kick things off with a bang next year for select Android users by inviting them to a soft launch some time in early 2017. Of course, this soft launch will be followed by Hatch’s effort to refine its service as well as remain in the hunt for new partners while settling on a subscription price which will keep everyone happy.
Vesa Jutila, Hatch’s head of content, shared, “The word ‘Hatch’ stands for a fresh beginning, a totally new era in mobile gaming. Hatch will be the only place where you can play, watch, and share your favorite games.”
Rovio figured out that the Hatch service will have to remain totally independent if the Finnish company were to have it attract game developers of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds. We do know know just how large of a stake that Rovio has in Hatch as a shareholder, or how little. Basically, Hatch has several functions that will bring about an amalgamation of the likes of Twitch, Facebook, Spotify, and Netflix. Will Hatch be able to achieve its objective of changing the way that ordinary gamers purchase as well as experience mobile games? Perhaps, but we are not able to judge its ability until we do know more about it and see it in action.
Needless to say, pricing the subscription fee right should be somewhere in the top priority for Hatch, as no matter how good your service or platform is, if it is unable to be priced to please, no one is going to jump on board. Do expect telcos to be happy as well if Hatch takes off -- this would probably mean a greater degree of data consumption among its subscribers, which will lead to higher profits. What are your predictions for Hatch?
