Sega’s Rovio Copenhagen studio is being shut down, following the cancellation of its cellular sport Sonic Blitz.
Sonic Blitz was a cross between a working sport and a card-collecting sport, the place gamers would run by phases accumulating rings earlier than collaborating in team-based tactical battles.
The sport soft-launched in Brazil and the Philippines in June 2025, however in February 2026 Rovio delisted the soft-launched model so it may work on the sport extra.
Final week it was confirmed that the sport was being cancelled solely, and as of August 24 it’s now solely unplayable for individuals who had it downloaded.
Now, as reported by Mobilegamer.biz, the Copenhagen studio that was engaged on the sport is being closed, with employees both being relocated to different Rovio tasks or being laid off.
“Following a redundancy course of, Rovio will discontinue all its operations in Denmark,” Rovio advised the publication. “As a result of the method has not but concluded, we’re not in a position to affirm an actual variety of redundancies in the meanwhile. Altogether, round 20 staff have labored on the now cancelled Sonic Blitz challenge.
“For group members who we can not allocate to a brand new challenge inside Rovio, we’ll present a complete transition bundle, together with devoted outplacement companies and wellbeing assist to help them in securing their subsequent profession alternatives.
“The choice to discontinue our operations in Copenhagen has been extraordinarily tough. We totally acknowledge the influence this has on our group, particularly given the continued challenges throughout the broader video games trade.”
In accordance with Sega West COO and Rovio CEO Alex Pelletier-Normand, the sport’s promoting level was a powerful one, but it surely wasn’t being mirrored in participant engagement.
“You’ve got these lovely playing cards and in case you flip them you’ve gotten the story of that character, when it was launched into the model and we felt that this was an awesome addition and one that might please the Sonic fandom,” he advised the publication.
“That was the speculation. And in cellular, it seems to be nice on paper, and then you definately simply have to validate it, and evidently retention hasn’t been actually good for us, which is among the first steps. We have to see folks have interaction with the sport for a protracted time frame.”
He added: “I nonetheless am satisfied that there’s a method to attain extra gamers on cellular with Sonic, it seems that it’s way more sophisticated than I believe each Sega and Rovio thought. We’re nonetheless very happy with the sport, very happy with what the group achieved, but it surely didn’t work.”
Sega just lately introduced plans “to enhance Rovio’s enterprise” following poor outcomes
Sega acquired Rovio in August 2023 at a complete value of €706 million, saying it hoped the Offended Birds studio would bolster its personal reside service cellular sport portfolio.
Since then, nevertheless, Sega has repeatedly famous in its monetary outcomes that Rovio has been producing much less earnings than it had forecast, stating in November 2025 that its “current mainstay titles have been on a steady downward development because the acquisition”.
In February 2026, Sega declared that it recognised roughly ¥31.3 billion (€169 million) of impairment losses “on goodwill and different intangible property” regarding Rovio, which means it at the moment valued the corporate at €169 million lower than the €706 million worth it acquired it for.
In Could 2026, Sega additionally said that Rovio’s efficiency “remained sluggish”, due partly to “sure titles performing under plan”.
In a administration assembly which happened in June, Sega said a variety of initiatives it deliberate to hold out “to enhance Rovio’s enterprise”, together with a strengthening of the rollout of Offended Birds 2, a stronger concentrate on video games based mostly on Offended Birds and Sonic, and advancing transmedia growth of the Offended Birds IP, together with with The Offended Birds Film 3 this December.
These initiatives additionally included “profitability enchancment measures”, nevertheless, together with “disciplined value administration throughout improvement studios and back-office features”.