Immersion and Rovio Launch New Version of Angry Birds Friends Featuring Touch Feedback

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Immersion Corporation IMMR, the leading developer and licensor of touch feedback technology and Rovio Entertainment Ltd., the creator of the globally successful Angry Birds franchise, today announced that they have expanded the gaming experience in Angry Birds Friends to include tactile effects created with TouchSense® Engage, Immersion's haptic technology. As one of the first developers to leverage custom designed tactile effects, Rovio is leading the industry in the creation of a new category of mobile games — games you can feel. Similar to rumble and force feedback in console gaming, mobile games can use haptic technology to engage the sense of touch to add a new layer of action and excitement for the user.

"Angry Birds Friends and all of our other games, first and foremost, are designed to be fun entertainment. Our players actively use their hands to interact with our games. By including touch feedback, we've extended the user's engagement and increased the game's fun quotient," said Sami Lahtinen, SVP Games at Rovio. "Immersion's ability to custom design unique tactile effects that fit the action in Angry Birds Friends matched our goals in creating an enjoyable experience that keeps our users coming back for more."

"When it comes to gaming, there is an innate appeal to anything that literally shakes, moves, crashes and booms," said Nick Thomas, head of mobile gaming at Immersion. "Angry Birds Friends is the perfect game for haptics — we can create tactile effects that feel like a slingshot releasing, birds crashing, and buildings collapsing. These effects, used throughout the game, create a multi-sensory, richer experience for users."

Because of the precise method in which TouchSense Engage controls the actuator in the mobile device, tactile effects have a low impact on battery consumption, consuming on average only about one to three percent of battery use depending on the use case.

Content, games and media enhanced with tactile effects using TouchSense Engage work on the wide range of Android mobile devices on the market today and are optimized for devices running TouchSense technology in their operating system.

Availability

The new version of Angry Birds Friends enhanced with tactile effects can be downloaded on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rovio.angrybirdsfriends&hl=en.

About Rovio Entertainment Ltd.

Rovio Entertainment Ltd, the creator of Angry Birds™, is a global industry-changing entertainment media company headquartered in Finland that creatively combines digital with physical, breaking the boundaries of traditional content delivery. What started as a casual game in 2009 became an international phenomenon within a few months of its release. Today, Angry Birds is not only the most downloaded game of all time, it is a worldwide known entertainment brand reaching out into publishing, licensing, animations, books and location based entertainment. Rovio's animated Angry Birds feature film is slated for July 2016. www.rovio.com

About Immersion (www.immersion.com)

Founded in 1993, Immersion IMMR is the leading innovator in haptic technology. The company's touch feedback solutions deliver a more compelling sense of the digital world. Using Immersion's high-fidelity haptic systems, partners can transform user experiences with unique and customizable touch feedback effects; excite the senses in games and videos; restore "mechanical" feel by providing intuitive and unmistakable confirmation; may improve safety by reducing distractions while driving; provide realistic touch feedback when performing robotic medical procedures and training simulations; and expand usability when audio and visual feedback are ineffective. Immersion's TouchSense technology provides haptics in mobile phone, automotive, gaming, medical, and consumer electronics products from world-class companies. With over 1,900 issued or pending patents in the U.S., China and other countries, Immersion helps bring the digital universe to life. Learn more at www.immersion.com or www.touchsense.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of Immersion Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

All statements, other than the statements of historical fact, are statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the benefits of Immersion's TouchSense Engage, as well as the impact of haptics on mobile gaming applications and on Immersion's business.

Immersion's actual results might differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with Immersion's business, which include, but are not limited to: unanticipated difficulties and challenges encountered in product development efforts (including with respect to Immersion's TouchSense Engage) by Immersion and its licensees; delay in or failure to achieve adoption of Immersion's TouchSense Engage; unanticipated difficulties and challenges encountered in implementation efforts by Immersion's licensees; adverse outcomes in any future intellectual property-related litigation and the costs related thereto; the effects of the current macroeconomic climate; delay in or failure to achieve commercial demand for Immersion's products or third party products incorporating Immersion's technologies; and lack of market demand for Immersion's technologies. Many of these risks and uncertainties are beyond the control of Immersion.

For a more detailed discussion of these factors, and other factors that could cause actual results to vary materially, interested parties should review the risk factors listed in Immersion's most current Form 10-K, and Form 10-Q, both of which are on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this press release reflect Immersion's beliefs and predictions as of the date of this release. Immersion disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of financial, business, or any other developments occurring after the date of this release.

Immersion, the Immersion logo, and TouchSense are trademarks of Immersion Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (IMMR - C)