Rovio Gaming Chief Jami Laes quits, to start own venture

The head of games operation at Rovio, Jami Laes, has parted ways with the company as the business behind Angry Birds continues to grapple with an increasingly competitive mobile games market.

Jami said that he had left Rovio recently and is planning to launch a new start-up but declined to comment further.

A spokesperson for Rovio told GamesIndustry.biz, “Jami had some personal projects he’s decided to focus on and we wish him the best of luck with his endeavours.” David Byrne is now leading the Games unit for Rovio.

With over 1 billion downloads to date, Angry Birds is one of the most well-known mobile games ever.  A star-studded Angry Birds movie is also in the works.

Though Rovio has expanded its hugely successful Angry Birds brand into an animated TV series and consumer product licensing, the company has struggled to produce more hit games and recently said it would cut about 14 percent of its workforce.