Angry Birds yanked from the Google Play Store and renamed on the App Store

Angry Birds developer Rovio has announced that the classic game will be removed from the Google Play Store this week. What's more, the game will remain on the App Store but will get a new name. And that name is less than inspiring. Angry Birds is dead. Long live Red's First Flight.

Yes, you read that right. And why is this all happening? Rovio says that it has reviewed the business case for the game and apparently believes that it's impacting other games it creates. In other words, Rovio wants to make other games with Angry Birds in the title and it knows the classic version will get in the way.

The announcement came via the tweet embedded above and notes that Angry Birds will be removed from the Google Play Store on Thursday, February 23 2023. Presumably, that is also when the App Store version will see its name changed, but that wasn't made clear in the statement. However, those who already have the Angry Birds game installed on their Android phones will continue to be able to play it so long as it remains installed. However, anyone who buys a new phone will not be able to redownload it, unfortunately.

With that in mind, we'd suggest that anyone who thinks they might want to play Angry Birds on their phone should download it now, while the going is still good. Because very soon indeed we'll lose what has to be one of the most classic of mobile games.

Rovio's other titles including Angry Birds 2 will remain available and will not get a name change, it seems.