China Watch Blog has learnt that China’s first Angry Birds retail store, opening in Shanghai on July 3, which is also the first outside Finland, will be the first of many in a country where the game had proved hugely popular, Finnish company Rovio Entertainment announced in Shanghai.
Angry birds
Beijing will follow up with a similar store on July 10, while hundreds of outlets are said to be on their way over the next two years.
The Shanghai store, which will feature a wide range of products including toys, clothes, and cell phone shells, will be in the Grand Gateway mall in Xuhui District. “The Chinese retail store will be different from those in Finland,” Paul Chen, Rovio’s general manager in China, was quoted as saying in a Shanghai Daily report. “The goods will be combined with Chinese elements.”
Meanwhile, Shanghai Tongji University is to host the country’s first Angry Birds Activity Park, which will feature rides inspired by the game and which will be open to the public.
It will be established in the university’s Sino-Finish Center sometime around October.
“This is just the first step for us,” said Henri Holm, Rovio’s senior vice president for Asia. “We are planning to bring hundreds of Angry Birds Activity Parks to cities throughout China.”
Meanwhile, Rovio’s first overseas office has been established in Shanghai to work with local talent to develop cartoons and animation work with Chinese elements.
The company also plans to tap the Chinese education market to teach physics, history and culture.
Game designers are said to be interested in Chinese stories relating to birds, such as the traditional Chinese love story where a young cowherd Niulang and daughter of the Goddess Zhinv meet over a bridge formed by birds on Chinese Valentine’s Day.
The story may feature in future games, the company said.
China is Rovio’s second largest market after the United States.
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