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Angry Birds Space release date

Has gravitational pulls, special powers.

Angry Birds Space has been announced by NASA astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station (video below).

Don't feed Buzz aldrin.

All that trouble was gone to, to demonstrate that Angry Birds Space is different. It's still fling-bird-at-pig, but this time with gravitational pulls and special powers.

Angry Birds Space will be released for Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC on 22nd March, according to The Guardian.

There will be 60 levels and six new characters. And new levels will be added for free as well as for a price.

Incidentally, on how that NASA video came about:

"This collaboration began with a simple Twitter exchange about birds and pigs in space, and it has grown into a tremendous outreach and education opportunity," NASA's associate administrator for communications David Weaver told The Guardian.

"Games are fun and entertaining, but they also can be inspirational and informative. This ongoing collaboration with Rovio and Angry Birds is an exciting way to get people engaged with NASA's missions of exploration and discovery, and get students energised about future careers in science and technology."

Angry Birds is a phenomenon. It's been downloaded more than 700 million times and spun off into merchandise galore. Finnish developer Rovio may as well rename itself Angry Birds - it's a one-brand studio. But that's one brand that can span animated television series and, eventually, animated films - think the Ice Age trilogy, Rovio told Eurogamer last year.

Rovio last year valued itself at more than $1 billion. Estimates today put the value at between $6 and $9 million - vindication for Rovio CEO Mikael Hed's grandparents remortgaging their flat in order to prevent the company going under.

Angry Birds plushy, Pettit.

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