Angry Birds will soon have a new home, but can it ever be a must-play again?

pocket-lint.com:

There are a few major success stories in the rise of mobile games that everybody knows but few still play — at least in the numbers they once did. Candy Crush is one, Hearthstone is another. However, neither quite holds a candle to Angry Birds — an app store tour de force that once reined so supreme that it spawned a global movie and merchandise explosion of epic proportions.

Now Sega hopes to revitalise its fortunes and bring the never-ending battle twixt bird and pig back to public consciousness by buying developer and publisher Rovio. A $775 million deal to acquire the Finnish studio has been agreed as the Japanese gaming giant looks to expand its operations.

Of course, Rovio is about more than just Angry Birds, but you'll be hard-pressed to name one of its handful of other titles. So, can Sega revitalise interest in the feathered firebrands? The answer is, it might not have to.

One confirmed area it wants Rovio to grow into is console and PC gaming. While it has worked with Activison in the past, to bring Angry Birds to Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo devices, it hasn't got a lengthy track history in the field. It's something Sega wants to rectify: «Rovio is aiming to expand its platform outside of mobile gaming, and Sega will actively look to support this process through its capabilities,» it says.

The company also wants its newfound acquisition to switch attention to the vast catalogue of Sega properties — to turn them into more viable mobile offerings: «Through the acquisition, [Sega] aims to take-in Rovio’s live-operated mobile game development capabilities and expertise in mobile game operation, to accelerate the development of mobile-compatible and multi-platform-supported version of Sega’s existing game IP,» it