, the official Hatch website now has a message explaining that the platform was retired on December 31st, 2020. Rovio hasn’t provided a reason for the closure, but it’s safe to assume that the concept simply never took off. Game streaming is on the rise Google, Microsoft and others have competing services at the moment but most are focused on console and PC-quality titles. Facebook is the rare exception with mobile-optimized games such as
Asphalt 9: Legends and
PGA TOUR Golf Shootout. But unlike Rovio, it’s leveraging a legacy platform that already has billions of users around the world.
We tried Hatch back in 2018 and was impressed by the quality of the library, which included hits like
Original story: Rovio has shut down its mobile streaming service, Hatch.
There was no announcement from the mobile studio as reported by Gamasutra, a banner simply appeared on its website, saying: Hatch service closed on December 31, 2020. Thank you very much for using Hatch!
Hatch was created by Rovio s subsidiary Hatch Entertainment in 2016 with the ambition to be the Netflix of mobile games. Following an open beta, it launched in Nordic countries, UK and Ireland in 2018, and in Japan via a partnership with Docomo partnership in 2019.
However, in February 2019, Rovio announced its intention to sell its controlling share of Hatch Entertainment after posting a decline in revenue and profits for 2018. The following month, Rovio announced it was in talks with several investors, but it doesn t seem like it ever did sell the shares.
Mobile-based streaming service Hatch, which was majority-owned by Angry Bird’s creator Rovio, was quietly closed at the end of 2020, Gamasutra has reported.
A banner on the service’s website states that Hatch ceased to be as of December 31st 2020, although no announcement was made by Hatch or Rovio to that end. And while Hatch is shuttered, its spin-off service Hatch Kids appears to be still running.
Hatch was designed to stream mobile games to mobile gamers, reducing friction of installs and providing premium content, without microtransactions, in a form that sidestepped the discovery issues of the main app stores. However it looks to have struggled in finding an audience. Rovio owned 80 per cent of the company.