Sega’s Rovio Copenhagen studio is being shut down, following the cancellation of its mobile game Sonic Blitz.
Sonic Blitz was a cross between a running game and a card-collecting game, where players would run through stages collecting rings before taking part in team-based tactical battles.
The game soft-launched in Brazil and the Philippines in June 2025, but in February 2026 Rovio delisted the soft-launched version so it could work on the game more.
Last week it was confirmed that the game was being cancelled entirely, and as of August 24 it’s now entirely unplayable for those who had it downloaded.
Now, as reported by Mobilegamer.biz, the Copenhagen studio that was working on the game is being closed, with staff either being relocated to other Rovio projects or being laid off.
“Following a redundancy process, Rovio will discontinue all its operations in Denmark,” Rovio told the publication. “Because the process has not yet concluded, we are not able to confirm an exact number of redundancies at the moment. Altogether, around 20 employees have worked on the now cancelled Sonic Blitz project.
“For team members who we cannot allocate to a new project within Rovio, we will provide a comprehensive transition package, including dedicated outplacement services and wellbeing support to assist them in securing their next career opportunities.
“The decision to discontinue our operations in Copenhagen has been extremely difficult. We fully recognize the impact this has on our team, especially given the ongoing challenges within the broader games industry.”
According to Sega West COO and Rovio CEO Alex Pelletier-Normand, the game’s selling point was a strong one, but it wasn’t being reflected in player engagement.
“You have these beautiful cards and if you flip them you have the story of that character, when it was introduced into the brand and we felt that this was a great addition and one that could please the Sonic fandom,” he told the publication.
“That was the hypothesis. And in mobile, 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.”
He added: “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.”
Sega recently announced plans “to improve Rovio’s business” following poor results
Sega acquired Rovio in August 2023 at a total cost of €706 million, saying it hoped the Angry Birds studio would bolster its own live service mobile game portfolio.
Since then, however, Sega has repeatedly noted in its financial results that Rovio has been generating less income than it had forecast, stating in November 2025 that its “existing mainstay titles have been on a continuous downward trend since the acquisition”.
In February 2026, Sega declared that it recognised approximately ¥31.3 billion (€169 million) of impairment losses “on goodwill and other intangible assets” relating to Rovio, meaning it currently valued the company at €169 million less than the €706 million price it acquired it for.
In May 2026, Sega also stated that Rovio’s performance “remained sluggish”, due in part to “certain titles performing below plan”.
In a management meeting which took place in June, Sega stated a number of initiatives it planned to carry out “to improve Rovio’s business”, including a strengthening of the rollout of Angry Birds 2, a stronger focus on games based on Angry Birds and Sonic, and advancing transmedia expansion of the Angry Birds IP, including with The Angry Birds Movie 3 this December.
These initiatives also included “profitability improvement measures”, however, including “disciplined cost management across development studios and back-office functions”.
