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Rovio Entertainment Ltd., the games company behind the immensely popular Angry Birds franchise, is changing its business strategy, aiming to earn more money by making its games free.
打造了风靡全球的《愤怒的小鸟》(Angry Birds)系列的游戏公司Rovio娱乐有限公司(Rovio Entertainment Ltd.)正在调整其商业策略，意图通过提供免费游戏来创造更多收入。
The company has spent years building a revenue base by offering Angry Birds games that cost money to download. But now it has changed course and entered the world of so-called freemium games, where the game costs nothing to download, but is packed with features that users must pay to access, such as ways to speed up the game or increase power.
多年来，Rovio娱乐通过需付费下载的《愤怒的小鸟》系列游戏确立了收入基础。而如今公司转变轨道，进入了所谓的免费增值游戏(freemium games)领域。这一商业模式下的游戏均可免费下载，但附加有一些须付费才能使用的功能，例如加速游戏进程或提升力量。
Rovio, which burst onto the mobile-games scene in 2009, released 'Angry Birds Go!' on a freemium basis last month. While the company has experimented with the free-to-play strategy in the past, this is the first time an Angry Birds game has been solely designed to compete with other freemium games, such as Supercell's 'Clash of Clans' or King's 'Candy Crush.'
Rovio娱乐在2009年进军移动游戏市场，并于上个月推出了免费增值游戏《Angry Birds Go!》。尽管公司此前曾尝试过免费游戏策略，但这是《愤怒的小鸟》系列第一款意在与其他免费增值游戏相竞争的游戏，例如Supercell的《部落战争》(Clash of Clans)以及King的《糖果粉碎传奇》(Candy Crush)。
Still, the strategy could help Rovio crack the list of top-grossing apps. All of the top 10 highest-grossing apps in Apple Inc. AAPL -1.41% 's app store in 2013 were games, but only one of these, Swedish game developer Mojang AB's 'Minecraft,' was a paid app. Angry Birds games failed to place in the app store's 10 highest-grossing mobile-game apps in 2013, according to the research company Distimo.
而该策略有望帮助Rovio娱乐闯进收入最高游戏的榜单。2013年苹果公司(Apple Inc. ,AAPL)应用商店收入前10名全部为游戏类应用，而其中只有瑞典游戏开发商Mojang AB的《Minecraft》是付费游戏。根据调研公司Distimo的数据，《愤怒的小鸟》系列游戏没能闯进2013年收入最高移动游戏应用的前10名。
But Rovio is beginning to see its games not as profit generators in and of themselves, but rather a tool to boost the sales of thousands of Angry Birds-themed products-ranging from mascara to theme parks-and build awareness ahead of the first feature-length Angry Birds cartoon, set to premiere in July 2016.
然而Rovio娱乐已不再将游戏产品视作为获利来源，而是开始将它当做一种工具，以帮助促进《愤怒的小鸟》系列主题产品（囊括了睫毛膏和主题公园在内的众多产品）的销售收入，并为计划在2016年7月首映的第一部长篇同名动画片宣传造势。
Roughly 45% of Rovio's 2012 revenue of 152.2 million euros ($209.2 million) came from the sale of licensed merchandise, up steeply from 2011.
2012年Rovio娱乐实现收入1.522亿欧元（合2.092亿美元），其中约45%来自特许商品收入，较2011年有大幅增长。
'Free-to-play is new for us,' Jami Laes, Rovio's executive vice president for games, said in an interview. 'That's why we are taking it slow.'
公司执行副总裁拉埃斯(Jami Laes)在接受采访时说，免费游戏对于我们来说是一项新事物，所以我们要慢慢来。
Mr. Laes said the move is designed primarily to get more people interacting with the Angry Birds franchise, which has already attracted two billion downloads to date and has made Rovio one of the best-known players in the industry. 'Free is obviously a great price point to get our product and entertainment experiences into the hands of more consumers,' he said.
拉埃斯说这一举措主要是为了让更多人有机会体验《愤怒的小鸟》系列游戏，迄今该系列游戏已吸引来20亿次下载量，还使Rovio娱乐成为业内最富盛名的公司之一。拉埃斯说，免费游戏显然是一个极佳的价格点，它能让更多的消费者接触到我们的产品和娱乐体验。
