Angry Birds Creator Takes Aim at Nintendo

Rovio developer Peter Veserbacka isn't too fond of Nintendo and their games strategy.

The Finn is taking aim at the Japanese company over comments Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said about the smartphone game business.

It's interesting to see people like Nintendo saying smartphones are destroying the games industry, Vesterbacka said to MCV. Of course, if I was trying to sell a $49 piece of plastic to people then yes, I'd be worried too. But I think it's a good sign that people are concerned -- because from my point of view we're doing something right.

Vesterbacha's comments come weeks after Nintendo's president decried the effect mobile games like Angry Birds will have on the industry. Much of his concern came from the business model, as Iwata isn't convinced that games like Angry Birds are sustainable in the long term, Yes, pretty much every game is cheaper to develop, but what revenue will they engender? he said during this year's Game Developers Conference.

This isn't the first time the Rovio exec has taken shots at Nintendo. In a panel discussion at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, Vesterbacka said that innovation wasn't coming from large companies like Nintendo, but from smaller companies like his own. The traditional games industry is dying, he said.

But Versterbacka was less hostile in his interview with MCV. The console market is important, but it's not dying, but not the fastest growing platform out there, he said.

A lot of people in the games industry, they think the 'real' games are on consoles. You're only a 'real' games company if you do a big budget game. But we don't have that inferiority complex, he said.