Rovio Entertainment has announced the closure of its Copenhagen development studio following the cancellation of the mobile game Sonic Blitz. The decision marks a significant shift for the Finnish publisher, which had been working to expand its portfolio with a high‑profile Sonic title on smartphones. According to a spokesperson speaking to Mobilegamer.biz, the redundancy process is still underway, so the exact headcount of affected employees cannot be confirmed at this time. Roughly twenty people had been assigned to the Sonic Blitz effort, and they are among those whose futures are now uncertain.
"The choice to end our operations in Copenhagen was incredibly hard," the spokesperson explained. "We are fully aware of the impact this has on our colleagues, especially given the broader difficulties currently facing the games industry worldwide." For staff members who cannot be reassigned to another Rovio project, the company said it will provide a comprehensive transition package. This includes outplacement assistance, career‑coaching services, and wellbeing support designed to help employees secure new opportunities and navigate the change with as much stability as possible.
Rovio’s chief executive officer, who also serves as chief operating officer of Sega West, Alexandre Pelletier‑Normand, elaborated on the strategic rationale behind the move. He said the firm needed to "concentrate our bets both in terms of the games that we're making and where we're making them," emphasizing that resources must be focused on titles with the strongest commercial prospects. When Sonic Blitz was first introduced into the Sonic brand, Pelletier‑Normand believed it could serve as a valuable addition that would resonate with the long‑time Sonic fan base.
"We thought it would be a great fit and could please the Sonic fandom," he recalled. "That was the hypothesis. In the mobile space, the concept looks great on paper, but you still have to validate it with real‑world data." The validation process revealed that player retention – a critical metric for mobile games – was far lower than expected.
Retention is essential because it indicates whether players continue to engage with a title over weeks and months, driving in‑app purchases and long‑term revenue. "It seems that retention hasn't been really good for us, which is one of the first steps.
We need to see people engage with the game for a long period of time," Pelletier‑Normand said. Despite the disappointing numbers, he remained convinced that Sonic could eventually find a successful foothold on mobile platforms. "I still am convinced that there is a way to reach more players on mobile with Sonic; it turns out that it's much more complicated than I think both Sega and Rovio thought," he added.
"We're still very proud of the game, very proud of what the team achieved, but it didn’t work." Sonic Blitz entered a soft‑launch phase in 2025, targeting markets in the Philippines and Brazil. The limited release was intended to gather performance data and refine the experience before a broader rollout. However, after analyzing the results, Rovio decided to pull the plug on the project last month, citing the need for a "broader change" in the studio’s direction. The developer stressed that the shutdown does not reflect a lack of passion, creativity, or effort from the team, nor does it diminish the enthusiastic support received from the community during development.
"We want to be clear that this decision is not a reflection of the passion, creativity or effort that went into making Sonic Blitz, nor the amazing support we received from our community throughout the development of the game," the company statement read. The closure comes in the wake of Sega's acquisition of Rovio for $776 million in 2023. Earlier this year, Sega disclosed a $200 million impairment charge related to the purchase, noting that the anticipated profitability had fallen short of initial forecasts. The impairment highlighted challenges in integrating Rovio’s proprietary Beacon technology—a location‑based service—into Sega’s existing mobile titles.
Sega CEO Haruki Satomi explained that the operational and marketing approaches of Rovio differed significantly from Sega’s own practices, and that the Beacon platform had yet to be fully leveraged in new mobile games. "We found that the operational and marketing methods and approaches significantly differ from Rovio titles and new mobile games are yet to fully exploit Beacon," Satomi said. "Consequently, we have unfortunately not achieved the level of results that had been expected prior to the acquisition." In summary, the combination of under‑performing retention metrics for Sonic Blitz, strategic realignment after the Sega acquisition, and difficulties harmonizing technology stacks has led Rovio to shutter its Copenhagen studio.
While the decision is painful for the roughly twenty staff members directly involved, the company has pledged support to help them transition to new roles, either within Rovio or elsewhere in the industry. The episode serves as a reminder of the high stakes and rapid pace of change in mobile gaming, where even well‑known brands must constantly prove their appeal to a demanding audience.