New Angry Birds game for China Unicom users

Finnish gaming developer Rovio Entertainment has partnered with China Unicom to release the latest version of the popular mobile game Angry Birds in China on the latter's newly-launched mobile gaming platform, the companies announced Wednesday.

The new game, Angry Birds Space, will debut on China Unicom's online handset game center on March 29, according to an agreement announced by China Unicom's Zhejiang branch based in the city of Hangzhou, which is also the telecom operator's mobile gaming base.

"This is a totally new game, even though there are birds and pigs, they are in the new environment. This game has new elements and new figures," Outi Wuorenheimo, Rivio's global sales manager, said in Hangzhou on Wednesday.

Rovio released the first version of Angry Birds, a casual puzzle game for touchscreen smartphones in 2009. The game became a worldwide phenomenon a year later. The company subsequently developed two versions -- Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio.

China Unicom is the country's second-largest telecommunications operator. Its mobile gaming platform offers 3,000 games and supports the Android operating system. The platform will be further improved to support iOS and Windows Phone systems, officials said.

China has nearly 1 billion mobile phone users, about 13.7 percent of whom are also 3G network users. Mobile gaming, mobile shopping and mobile reading have become the key businesses for growth.