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Windows Phone left on launchpad by Angry Birds in spaaace

Microsoft lacks the gravity to attract a port

Updated Rovio has shunned Windows Phone for the latest outing of the super-soaraway Angry Birds franchise, saying that it can't support every platform and has no plans to support that one.

Angry Birds in Space is out for iOS (£1.99), Mac (£2.99), PC (£4.97) and Android (free but plastered with ads), but notably absent is a Windows Phone port. Worse than that, the developer told Bloomberg that it has no schedule to produce a version for Microsoft's mobile OS.

That's despite the original Angry Birds still topping the Windows Phone store (at £2.29 but lacking the additional levels available on the other versions), but porting Angry Birds in Space is apparently more effort than it's worth.

"It’s a big undertaking to support it, and you have to completely rewrite the application," Rovio's chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka told Bloomberg, adding that the company has no plans or schedule to do that.

It's true that targeting Angry Birds in Space at another platform would require some effort - the game uses a modified physics engine to allow different bodies to exert gravity in different directions, but that doesn't explain why Angry Birds Seasons, or even the additional levels of Angry Birds, aren't available for Windows Phone.

Porting those levels would be a lot less work, and the fact that Rovio hasn't bothered is indicative of how few sales it is getting on the Windows Phone platform, underlined by the decision not to port Angry Birds in Space.

Angry Birds was Rovio's 52nd attempt to catch the mobile gestalt, and having conquered it with pig-squashing avians Rovio has been busy squeezing the brand for all its worth before fashion moves on. The company is apparently planning around four more versions before the end of 2012, depending on how far it can push the concept.

Rovio enlisted NASA to promote Angry Birds in Space on the basis that flinging birds through varying gravity fields is somehow educational, even if those gravity fields have cliff edges which would make Einstein blush. ®

Updated to Add

Rovio has now apparently changed its mind.

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