关于发行商Chillingo和手机游戏开发者Rovio的关系是微妙而神奇的。在Chillingo的帮助下，Rovio旗下的游戏andry birds一飞冲天，长期把持着苹果app store的下载排行榜的榜首。

angry-birds

可以说发行商Chillingo和手机游戏开发者Rovio共同打造了手机游戏的一段神话，据称angry birds的免费版和付费版总下载量已经超过了3000万（android、ios、webos、symbina以及psp等等）。

但是他们的愉悦合作在两个事件之后出现了分歧。一个是Chillingo帮助俄罗斯游戏开发者ZeptoLab旗下的Cut the Rope超越了angry birds成为app store下载最快的一款游戏，仅仅10天就实现了100万的下载量，仅仅三周就实现了200万的下载量。这里Cut the Rope击败的就是angry birds。另外一个事件是Chillingo被EA以2000万美元左右的价格收购，但是该收购并不包含angry birds的知识产权。

Rovio收回了angry birds的发行权，并自己发行了angry birds的万圣节专版Angry Birds Halloween，事实上在没有Chillingo的协助下，该版本的销售依然火爆，在6天之内就实现了100万的下载量，重新夺回app store最受欢迎的游戏应用头衔。

Cut-the-Rope2

现在的疑惑是Angry Birds Halloween能够继续维持这样的下载势头吗，能够成功阻击Cut the Rope的强势冲击吗？这是对Rovio mobile发行实力的一次大考验，在没有发行商Chillingo协助的情况下，Angry Birds还能维持一贯的强势吗？

现在app store最炙手可热的三款游戏排名依次是Angry Birds Halloween、Angry Birds以及Cut the Rope。尽管Rovio mobile的产品暂时领先，但是整个排行布局看起来并不算稳固。（本文由游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? If these forces and objects are analogous to the recent battle for the top spot in the App Store, the answer is simple: sales.

It’s been an interesting month for that top spot in the App Store, but an even more interesting month for these two companies. Angry Birds, a Rovio-developed game published by Chillingo, had been sitting in the #1 spot for as long as we can remember. It seemed as if the pairing of these two companies was a match made in heaven. Then, earlier this month, Angry Birds was finally dethroned by another Chillingo published game – Cut the Rope. This is where things start to get weird.

At first everything seemed normal. From the consumer point of view it was downright exciting. After all, if a game is good enough to unseat Angry Birds from the top spot, it must be worth a purchase, right? Enough people clearly thought so as Cut the Rope sold 1 million times in only 10 days to become the fastest selling game in the history of the App Store.

Then Rovio struck back. 16 days after the release of Cut the Rope, they debuted Angry Birds Halloween on the App Store – and they did it without Chillingo.

Was it bitterness over Cut the Rope? A decision to distance themselves in light of Chillingo’s recent EA acquisition? Simply a logical move to take control over their own brand? We may never know why Rovio decided it was time to self-publish and leave Chillingo out of the picture on this one, but there’s no denying that’s exactly what they did.

And it seems to be working. Angry Birds Halloween quickly wrestled the #1 spot back from Cut the Rope. And that record Cut the Rope set? Rovio shredded it, selling a million copies in only six days. But can they maintain those numbers?

Angry Birds Halloween is still #1, but it’s also a seasonal release and will no doubt fall in popularity once November 1st rolls around. Cut the Rope, on the other hand, is set to offer the sort of ongoing free content that has made the original Angry Birds so popular. Clearly this is a title with staying power. And Cut the Rope’s numbers are climbing fast. Chillingo has just announced that Cut the Rope has crossed the 2 million mark in only 3 weeks.

But then again, the original Angry Birds has climbed back into the #2 spot, pushing Cut the Rope down the #3 – possibly a result of renewed interest thanks to the Halloween version.

If Rovio continues to go it alone, can they manage to reproduce the longevity of their original Chillingo-published hit in a future self-published title? Or does Halloween simply mark the beginning of future seasonal releases like Angry Birds Christmas or Angry Birds Administrative Assistant’s Day? And if these do turn out to be popular, can Cut the Rope Kwanza be far behind?

In a market rocked by acquisitions and a constantly flooded App Store, watching these two duke it out at the top of the sales charts might just be the most exciting horse race of the year. Which pony are you betting on?（source：gamezebo）