Rovio becomes an exclusive partner for Moomin based mobile games via deal with Moomin Characters
Partnership brings together iconic Finnish brands with a joint long-term commitment to create joyful content
HELSINKI, 21 June 2021. Gutsy Animations, the Emmy® Award-nominated studio behind the internationally celebrated Moominvalley 3D animation series, has secured €5 million investment from one of the most successful Finnish mobile gaming companies globally, Rovio Entertainment, creator of the Angry Birds franchise. Additionally, Rovio has secured exclusive rights from Moomin Characters Ltd and Rights & Brands, the global licensing agency for the Moomin brand, to develop and publish Moomin IP-based games for any platform and exclusive rights for all mobile platforms. Rovio’s first Moomin game, based on the original story and world created by Tove Jansson and inspired by the Moominvalley visuals, is already being developed and is expected to reach soft launch later in 2021.
Gutsy Animations’ impactful partnership with Rovio makes content creation history by strengthening Finnish expertise and Nordic values in a highly competitive industry. This collaboration underscores the strong trust in Finnish know-how and in the power of storytelling through common values.
Alex Pelletier-Normand, CEO of Rovio, says: “Gutsy Animations did an astonishing job at bringing to life the rich stories and alluring atmosphere of the Moominvalley. We are honoured and excited to enter this partnership with Moomin Characters and Gutsy Animations. Working with Gutsy and Moomin will give us the opportunity to present
this iconic brand to new audiences across the globe at the same time as we surely will delight our existing fans. This partnership will diversify our IP portfolio, which is a key step in our consistent growth strategy. We are already working on a mobile game that is still in early phase of the development, and we expect it to reach soft launch later this year.‘’
Roleff Kråkström, Managing Director of Moomin Characters, says: “Moomin Characters looks to expand their digital footprint and offering, it’s fantastic to join forces with Rovio Entertainment, who bring a wealth of expertise and success in this space. We’re confident this partnership will open up new opportunities not only to the Moomin trademark, but also to the additional Nordic story. This partnership marks an important milestone in our strategy to take local Nordic creations to the international marketplace.’’
Marika Makaroff, Founder and CCO of Gutsy Animations, says: “I’m thrilled to have Rovio joining us and bolstering our efforts to create meaningful international content that leans into Nordic values. This investment shows growth does not always need to come from far afield and is an incredible display of confidence in Gutsy Animations’ ability to create high quality, distinctive content for the global market. Additionally, by forging a collaboration between three Finnish companies, this partnership shows a high level of trust in Finnish know-how, as well as serving to highlight the power of storytelling through shared values. Through this investment, we’ll have a valuable opportunity to continue writing Finnish success stories that span the worlds of both entertainment and culture, and which follow in
the footsteps of our celebrated, Emmy® Award-nominated adaptation of the original Moomin stories, Moominvalley”.
Gutsy Animations, founded in 2016 by awarded creator, Marika Makaroff, is a Finnish production house that creates high quality content for the international market. The company’s flagship production, multi award-winning Moominvalley, has a record-high of 16 million starts on Yle’s streaming platform in Finland. Gutsy Animations believes that the world is in need of kind, clever, meaningful, and gutsy content for global audiences.
PRESS PACKAGE: https://bit.ly/3i8KP7s
For more information, please contact:
Press enquiries:
DDA / gutsy@ddapr.com
Harri Roto, CEO, Gutsy Animations
Tel. +358 40 840 8007
Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, CEO, Rovio Entertainment Corporation
Media desk: +358 40 485 8985
Roleff Kråkström, Managing Director, Moomin Characters
Tel. +358 (0) 40 054 9692
Patrick Ullman, CEO, Rights & Brands
Tel. +46 (0) 733 649 329
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Gutsy Animations
A Finnish production house Gutsy Animations believes that the world is in need of kind, clever, meaningful, and gutsy content for global audiences. The flagship production, Moominvalley TV series, is an International Emmy® Award -nominee and has a record-high 16 million starts on Yle’s streaming platform in Finland. Moominvalley won the Golden Venla for the Best Children and Youth Programme on two consecutive years – in 2019 and again in 2020. The production company, founded by awarded creator Marika Makaroff in 2016, leans on the best creatives around the world in the production.
About Rovio Entertainment
Rovio Entertainment Corporation is a global, mobile-first games company that creates, develops and publishes mobile games, which have been downloaded over 4.5 billion times so far. Rovio is best known for the global Angry Birds brand, which started as a popular mobile game in 2009, and has since evolved from games to various entertainment and consumer products in brand licensing. Today, Rovio offers multiple mobile games, animations and produced The Angry Birds Movie in 2016. Its sequel, The Angry Birds Movie 2, was released in 2019. Rovio is headquartered in Finland and the company's shares are listed on the main list of NASDAQ Helsinki stock exchange with the trading code ROVIO.
About Moomin Characters
Moomin Characters Oy Ltd is the official copyright holder of all the Moomin characters. All characters from Moominvalley are trademark registered worldwide. The Moomins are central characters in a series of books and comic strips written by Finnish-Swedish writer and artist Tove Jansson between 1945 and 1980. They are one of Finland’s biggest exports and have a global fan base. The company was founded in the 1950’s by Tove Jansson (1914-2001) and her brother Lars Jansson to take care of the copyright of the Moomins and is still run by family members. Rights and Brands is the worldwide licensing agent of the company.
Find out more about Tove Jansson and the Moomins here:
About Rights & Brands
Rights & Brands is a 360 licensing and publishing agency bringing Nordic rights and brands to a global arena. Rights & Brands represents iconic Nordic brands, artists and authors and is the worldwide master agent on behalf of Moomin Characters. Other representation includes Tove Jansson, Stig Lindberg, Carl Larsson-gården Sundborn, Ilon Wikland, Mauri Kunnas and many more.
With its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden and local branches in Helsinki, Oslo and Tokyo, R&B was founded in 2016 by Moomin Characters and Bulls, combining over 70 years of licensing experience and have over 800 clients world-wide.