Alex and the marketing machine

With over a billion game downloads - not to mention the sale of millions of plush toys and other merchandising, and at least one activity park - the success of Angry Birds has seen Rovio build up a massive licensing operation.

Indeed, as the company's recent financials reveal, its consumer goods department (everything that's not digital games) now accounts for around a third of Rovio's revenue.

So how will Amazing Alex fit into this?

As a new game and property, there won't be a merchandising push of scale of Angry Birds at launch although you will be able to buy Alex-branded t-shirts and other apparel.

Instead, Rovio is taking a broader approach to Amazing Alex.

Certainly its animation department is working hard to create the sort of short videos that have helped grow the Angry Birds's brand and build up the birds' individual characters.

It's also thinking hard about the educational possibilities of the game's physics construction elements; something Rovio's had plenty of experience with collaborating with NASA over Angry Birds Space.

"Eventually we want to take branding to the same level as Angry Birds but it has to stand in its own right," says senior producer Kalle Kaivola.