New York Times Front Page Taken Over By “Angry Birds”

First it was Farmville that swept the nation and became an addiction for many: now, it’s the cell phone game Angry Birds. Today, even the New York Times got in on the nation’s collective Angry Birds obsession with a long front-page story about the game-turned-pop-culture-phenomenon, from the Times‘ technology reporter Jenna Wortham:

It sounds like a tough sell: a game that involves catapulting birds at elaborate fortresses constructed by evil pigs.

But Angry Birds, a hit game by Rovio, a small Finnish company, is one of the unlikeliest pop-culture crazes of the year — and perhaps the first to make the leap from cellphone screens to the mainstream.

Angry Birds, in which the birds seek revenge on the egg-stealing pigs, is meant to be easily played in the checkout line and during other short windows of downtime — but some players have trouble stopping. Rovio says people around the world rack up 200 million minutes of game play each day. (Put another way, that is 16 human-years of bird-throwing every hour.)

The game has inspired parodies, homages and fervent testimonials. Homemade Angry Birds costumes were big hits on Halloween. Conan O’Brien demonstrated the game in a YouTube video promoting his new show, and a sketch from an Israeli TV show about a birds-and-pigs peace treaty was popular online. Justin Bieber and other celebrities have professed their love of Angry Birds on social networks.

Read the full story here.

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