Amazon beats Android Market to Angry Birds Rio

It's name is Rio and it dances on the Amazon Appstore
It's name is Rio and it dances on the Amazon Appstore

Rovio has announced through Twitter and its blog that it will be launching its Angry Birds spin-off,

Angry Birds Rio

, exclusively through the Amazon Appstore.

Like it did with GetJar, Rovio has decided to sell another Angry Birds game not through the official Android Market but a third-party site.

The Amazon Appstore has yet to launch but the Angry Birds Rio UK release date is 22 March, so it's a given that Amazon will open up its app shop before this.

Look mum, no ads!

Interestingly, Angry Birds Rio will be a paid-for app. When GetJar had exclusive rights to Angry Birds Seasons for Android, it was offering the game for free but with ads.

This isn't the case for Angry Birds Rio, even though Rovio will be getting a fair bit of cash from Twentieth Century Fox, as the game is a tie-in for the upcoming Rio animated film.

Alongside Angry Birds Rio, the Amazon Appstore will also get paid versions of Angry Birds and Angry Birds Seasons. This is the first time Android users will be able to play the apps ad-free.

"The Android platform has seen phenomenal growth, and it's great that new avenues for app distribution are opening up," explained CEO Mikael Hed on the Rovio blog.

"The openness of the Android platform works for the benefit of consumers and developers alike. It has been delightful to team up with Amazon to bring the Angry Birds franchise to this great new application marketplace."

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.