According to developer Rovio, moviegoers with free-to-play mobile game Angry Birds Action! installed on their phones and active on their device during the Angry Birds movie will unlock special bonuses … but only if they keep their phone, with the app active, on. Watch the video from Rovio below, which explains how it works, kind of:
Hope you have a robust battery life and frankly, my dear, don’t give a damn about annoying your neighbors with your custom Harry Potter Distorted ring tone:
Referring to their movie tie-in bonuses by the cutesy name of Movie Magic, Rovio promises “a whole new area of the game to explore and an additional exclusive movie clip that can't be seen anywhere else but inside Angry Birds Action! if moviegoers agree to disregard all common civility and concern for their phone’s battery and obey their frustrated avian overlords.
It appears that the movie tie-in bonuses are actually activated by keeping the microphone inside of Angry Birds Action! on during the closing credits, not the actual movie. The game detects a watermark during the credits sequence that unlocks both a new level and another scene from the movie, making the instructions to keep the game active and your phone on throughout the entire Angry Birds movie rather aggravating.
If you, like any decent human being, refuse to keep your phone on during your moviegoing experience, don’t worry: Angry Birds movie tie-ins are all over the place. PEZ dispensers, Toys R’ Us stores, H&M clothes and even McDonald’s wrappers have become vectors for a very different kind of viral bird experience that lets you take photos with the Angry Birds. At least it’s not bird flu?
Angry Birds the movie comes out tomorrow, May 20. Please don’t keep your phone on during the movie. Or, well, it’s the Angry Birds movie, so to hell with it and play Candy Crush the whole time. It’s what Rovio would want, I guess.
