The celebrity sex when young videooriginal Angry Birdslaunched on Dec. 11, 2009, almost exactly 10 years ago. And to celebrate the coming anniversary, Rovio Entertainment has put together a whole slate of activities.
All of it will unfold under the banner of Rovio's "Bring the Anger" campaign, which is a lot happier than it sounds. Yes, a lot of us are angry as hell these days. But the basic premise here is for people to channelthat anger in positive directions.
The anniversary festivities will launch with an in-game Angry Birds 2event. Throughout November, the game's community will be challenged to "pop" as many pigs as they can, with a community-wide target of 10 billion. In early December, shortly after the end of the event, all players will receive an in-game gift and a thank you message from Rovio revealing how many pigs were popped in total.
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It's not just an anniversary event, though. Rovio's ongoing partnership with the Finland branch of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The two interests first teamed up earlier in 2019 to work together more broadly, and this is an extension of that work. The event itself will benefit UNICEF's Education in Emergencies fund, which works to provide uninterrupted schooling for kids in conflict zones.
For anyone who's not familiar, UNICEF is a U.N. agency focused on humanitarian efforts that benefit children specifically. The agency formed after the end of World War II, as families throughout Europe struggled to move forward in the wake of an armed conflict that shook the whole continent.
A few years later, UNICEF's mission expanded to take more of a long view toward providing aid. The "UNICEF" acronym, which has been in place since the agency's inception, technically stands for U.N. International Children's Emergency Fund, the actual name has since changed to "U.N. Children's Fund" to better reflect the expanded focus.
Separate from the event, Rovio will also be donating $100,000 directly to UNICEF. Players won't be able to make donations of their own in-game, but Rovio and UNICEF hope that the event's basic existence will push people to seek out more info on the agency's work.
SEE ALSO: Social Good Summit 2019 takes on climate change and centers marginalized voicesOn top of all that, Rovio also worked with Spin for Bring the Anger to cook up a funky motorized scooter that embraces the campaign's spirit of turning angry thoughts into something positive or joyful. The scooters, called "Rage Riders," are powered by screams.
If you're hoping to snag one for yourself, keep hoping. The idea isn't to put Rage Riders out in stores. They were built and sent out to select influencers mainly for content creation, as part of the Bring the Anger campaign's larger mission to spread awareness of UNICEF's work (with a distinctly Angry Birds flavor).
Rovio has even more planned around the Angry Birds10th anniversary that isn't quite ready for primetime, so stay tuned for more updates throughout the coming month.