Finland’s Rovio Entertainment has partnered with Washington-based game developer Legends of Learning to launch new Angry Birds games with a focus on education.
Based on the Angry Birds characters, the games will teach STEM concepts—such as force, collisions and how to measure angles—to kids ages five to 14. The Legends of Learning online platform will release the games this fall.
Launched in 2017, Legends of Learning is a learning hub for elementary and middle school students. Game-based learning improves children’s grades, says Legends of Learning CEO and co-founder Vadim Polikov. The platform, which contains more than 2,000 educational video games, is mostly free but also offers paid options for teachers. It also allows kids to customize avatars by paying a subscription. It’s used by about 10 million teachers and students in the US, according to a release.
Rovio has long seen its Angry Birds games—which have been downloaded over five billion times—as a potential educational tool. The company previously expanded the games into education through a partnership with the University of Helsinki, which focused on creating games that blended fun with learning. And in 2014, it launched a standalone venture called Fun Academy to create educational games.
Rovio has lately been expanding beyond its core focus of making games. It’s now producing a series for Amazon Kids+ and Prime Video titled Angry Birds Mystery Island. Meanwhile, Japanese game developer SEGA is in the midst of acquiring Rovio in a US$776 million deal.
