Angry Birds Star Wars 2 launching September 19th with Skylanders-esque toy tie-in


In a wholly unsurprising move, Finnish game dev studio Rovio Entertainment is creating yet another entry in its prolific Angry Birds series -- Angry Birds Star Wars 2. As its name implies, ABSW2 is the sequel to the first Star Wars-themed Angry Birds entry, which launched on various mobile devices last November. Its sequel will arrive on September 19th, and apparently features "over 30 playable characters." There aren't set launch platforms just yet, but we're guessing "iOS and Android devices" is a pretty safe bet; Windows Phone 8 as well, perhaps.

What is surprising is that the newest Angry Birds entry has a physical twist that we've yet to see from the brand: something called "telepods." The Hasbro-created toy is a physical representation of an in-game character, and Rovio Entertainment's VP of marketing Philip Hickey tells us it works by using a mobile phone or tablet's built-in camera to read the toy and implement it in-game -- an interesting choice in a world where Activision's NFC-based Skylanders rules the toy-based game landscape. As such, the toys likely won't function on game consoles, making it likely that any non-mobile version of the game will require some custom work to adapt. Hickey also tells Engadget that the toys will be available at retail alongside the game's September 19th launch, and that Rovio's exploring the possibility of making them function with previous series entries.


Source: ENGADGET

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