Rovio Entertainment has announced the closure of its Copenhagen development studio, a decision that follows the cancellation of the mobile game Sonic Blitz. The company confirmed that the shutdown is part of a broader restructuring effort aimed at concentrating resources on projects with higher strategic value. While the exact number of staff members affected has not been disclosed, a spokesperson indicated that roughly twenty people were directly involved in the Sonic Blitz development. The spokesperson explained that the redundancy process is still underway, making it difficult to provide precise figures at this stage.
"The choice to end our operations in Copenhagen was incredibly tough," they said. "We are fully aware of the impact this has on our colleagues, especially given the ongoing volatility across the wider games industry." To mitigate the impact on employees who cannot be reassigned to other Rovio initiatives, the company will offer a comprehensive transition package. This includes outplacement assistance, career counseling, and wellbeing support designed to help affected staff secure new opportunities as quickly as possible.
Alexandre Pelletier‑Normand, who serves as both Rovio's chief executive officer and the chief operating officer of Sega West, elaborated on the strategic rationale behind the move. He said the company needed to "focus its bets both on the games we choose to develop and on the locations where we develop them." Pelletier‑Normand added that when Sonic Blitz was first introduced into the Sonic brand, the team believed it would be a strong addition that could resonate with the franchise's fan base.
"That was our hypothesis," he noted. "On paper, the concept looked solid for a mobile title, but the real test is validation through player engagement.
Unfortunately, our retention metrics fell short of expectations, and retaining players over the long term is a critical early indicator of a mobile game's health." He continued, "I still believe there is a path to bringing Sonic to a broader mobile audience, but the reality turned out to be far more complex than both Sega and Rovio had anticipated. We remain immensely proud of the game and the hard work the team poured into it, but it simply didn't work out." Sonic Blitz entered a soft launch phase in 2025, targeting markets in the Philippines and Brazil. Despite initial optimism, the title was pulled from those markets last month.
Rovio framed the shutdown as part of a "broader change" within the studio, emphasizing that the decision does not reflect a lack of passion, creativity, or community support that the project enjoyed throughout its development. The broader context of this move involves Sega's acquisition of Rovio in 2023 for $776 million. Earlier this year, Sega disclosed a $200 million impairment charge related to the acquisition after the combined entity's profitability fell short of original forecasts. Integration challenges have also emerged, particularly around Rovio's Beacon technology, which Sega hoped to leverage across its own mobile portfolio.
Sega CEO Haruki Satomi commented on the difficulties, stating that the operational and marketing approaches of Rovio differ significantly from Sega's established methods. "New mobile games have yet to fully exploit Beacon," he said, adding that the expected synergies have not materialized, leading to results that fell below the targets set before the acquisition. In summary, the closure of the Copenhagen studio marks a significant shift for Rovio as it reevaluates its mobile strategy and seeks to align more closely with Sega's broader objectives. While the termination of Sonic Blitz is a setback, the company has expressed confidence that lessons learned will inform future endeavors and that the talent pool will be supported through robust transition assistance.
The industry will be watching closely to see how Rovio and Sega adjust their approach to mobile gaming moving forward, especially in light of the challenges surrounding player retention, technology integration, and cross‑studio collaboration.