Rovio Entertainment has announced the closure of its Copenhagen development studio, a move that follows the abrupt cancellation of the mobile title Sonic Blitz. The decision marks a significant shift for the Finnish publisher, which had hoped the Sonic‑branded game would expand its reach on smartphones and bring fresh life to the iconic hedgehog franchise. According to a spokesperson speaking to Mobilegamer.biz, the redundancy process is still underway, so the company cannot provide an exact headcount for the staff members affected.
Roughly twenty people were directly involved in the Sonic Blitz effort, though the broader Copenhagen team also contributed support functions such as art, quality assurance, and production. The spokesperson emphasized that the choice to end operations in Denmark was "extremely difficult" and that Rovio is fully aware of the personal and professional impact on its employees, especially given the broader challenges currently facing the games industry worldwide. To mitigate the disruption, Rovio has pledged a "comprehensive transition package" for those team members who cannot be reassigned to another internal project.
The package includes outplacement assistance, career‑coaching services, and wellbeing support designed to help staff secure new opportunities as quickly as possible. The company stressed that it will work closely with each affected employee to ensure a smooth and respectful exit process. Alexandre Pelletier‑Normand, who serves as both CEO of Rovio and Chief Operating Officer of Sega West, explained the strategic rationale behind the closure.
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." In other words, Rovio is refocusing its resources on a smaller number of high‑potential projects rather than spreading development effort across multiple, riskier ventures. When Sonic Blitz was first unveiled, Pelletier‑Normand believed the title would be a natural fit for the Sonic fan base and could attract new mobile players to the franchise.
"When [Sonic Blitz] was introduced into the brand, we felt that this was a great addition and one that could please the Sonic fandom," he recalled. The initial hypothesis was that Sonic's high‑energy aesthetic and fast‑paced gameplay would translate well to short‑session mobile experiences.
However, the reality proved more complex. In the mobile market, a game's success hinges heavily on player retention—keeping users engaged over weeks and months rather than just the first few sessions. "It looks great on paper, and then you just need to validate it, and 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 explained. The data showed that while the game attracted initial downloads, players quickly lost interest, leading to disappointing revenue and a failure to meet internal performance targets.
Despite the setback, Pelletier‑Normand remains convinced that Sonic can thrive on mobile platforms, but acknowledges that the execution proved far more difficult than both Sega and Rovio had anticipated. "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. We're still very proud of the game, very proud of what the team achieved, but it didn’t work," he said.
Sonic Blitz entered a soft‑launch phase in 2025, targeting markets such as the Philippines and Brazil. The limited release was intended to gather early feedback and refine the game's monetisation strategy before a global rollout. Nonetheless, after a few months of testing, the title was pulled from those markets and the development was halted entirely last month.
Rovio framed the cancellation as part of a "broader change" at the Copenhagen studio, emphasizing that the decision does not reflect a lack of passion, creativity, or community support during the game's development. The broader context of this move includes Sega's acquisition of Rovio in 2023 for $776 million. Earlier this year, Sega disclosed a $200 million impairment charge related to the purchase, citing lower‑than‑expected profitability from the combined operations.
One of the key integration challenges has been the incorporation of Rovio's Beacon technology—a location‑based service intended to enhance mobile game experiences—into Sega's existing mobile portfolio. Sega CEO Haruki Satomi noted that the operational and marketing approaches of Rovio differ significantly from Sega's traditional methods, and that the Beacon platform has yet to be fully leveraged in new titles.
"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 closure of the Copenhagen studio reflects a strategic realignment for Rovio and its parent company Sega. While the team behind Sonic Blitz is being recognised for its hard work and innovative spirit, the project ultimately fell short of retention and revenue benchmarks essential for mobile success. The company is now focusing on reallocating resources to projects with clearer paths to sustainable growth, while providing support to the employees affected by the studio shutdown.