Angry Birds set to smash into Facebook

Rovio’s hit franchise Angry Birds is set to smash beak first into Facebook come Valentine’s Day.

According to Asia Tech News, the company is planning a massive launch in Jakarta, Indonesia. According to Rovio head Peter Veserbacka, the decision to launch in Jakarta is a fairly obvious one, given that it is the “global capital of Facebook“.

The country does, after all, have the second largest Facebook population, after the US.

Angry Birds is already available across a number of mobile devices running a range of operating systems and as an app in Google Chrome. Downloads across those platforms number well over 700-million and look set to pass the billion mark sometime this year.

Getting onto Facebook provides Angry Birds with a potential audience of 800-million users. And if the success of Zynga (the company behind titles like Farmville and Mafia Wars) has proven anything, it’s that Facebook users love games, especially addictive ones. Anyone who’s played Angry Birds knows it loses no points on that front.

The decision to launch on Facebook may also be part of Rovio’s determination to target the magical “next billion” internet users. The ability to play Angry Birds was marketed as a key feature when Nokia launched its Asha series of phones aimed at emerging markets.

Don’t for a moment think Rovio views Facebook as the last platform its pig-hating, avian creations have to conquer. The Franchise is also coming to Smart, internet connected, TVs. This means you may find yourself playing Angry Birds in 55 inch full HD glory.

Add in a touch screen, and the game suddenly becomes a lot more physical.

According to ReadWriteWeb, the Facebook version of the popular gaming franchise will be made available to everyone on the social network come 14 February.