How we approached LGBTQIA+ Representation in our Games and Social Media (2025 edition)

Reaching billions of players worldwide, games are among the most influential forces in entertainment. This means that our industry holds enormous power and responsibility in shaping perceptions, challenging biases, and inspiring change. That’s why we launched the Playbook for Inclusive Game Development and Marketing in late 2023 as a resource for the wider industry on how to create inclusive games. 

Fast forward to 2025. Political climates have shifted, and companies fear potential backlash for Pride initiatives. In times like these, what does a company do? How does one respond? This post captures how we at Rovio approached Pride and LGBTQIA+ representation in our games and social media in the midst of the changing landscape.

The Social Media team has been leading the way in our Pride celebrations. In 2017, they started with a simple post of our birds arranged as a rainbow, and since then, the team has significantly expanded this work, incorporating a wide range of themes. This includes (but not limited to) showcasing fan art, highlighting trans and non-binary identities, and introducing different LGBTQIA+ identities.

Over time, they’ve also been making a conscious effort to involve more employees, especially those from the LGBTQIA+ community, as part of the creation process. For instance, this year, they hosted a “Prideation” (Pride Ideation) session, inviting LGBTQIA+ employees from across the company so people’s lived experiences directly shape the content and ensure authentic representation.

In times where social media posts about LGBTQIA+ content could spark hate and negativity, how does a company create a safe community? This is what Elsa James, Senior Social Media Marketing Specialist, advises: “Comments with derogatory language towards LGBTQIA+ people takes a huge mental toll, and is something we need to emotionally and functionally prepare for in advance. Sometimes these comments provide an opportunity for us to respond and make it clear what is and isn’t acceptable conduct within our community, but most of the time, these comments are simply unsafe content, that require moderation actions of hiding, deleting, or blocking to keep the community a safe place for our fans.” 

If you keep showing up and build a safe community, fans will take notice. As one user wrote, “Angry Birds have been unironically one of the most major leading allies for years now.” Feedback like this makes us proud.

Tip: Check our Playbook to learn more about ‘Building a Safe Space to Play’ (pages 38 – 43).

For several years, our Stockholm Studio behind the game Angry Birds 2 has been hosting in-game Pride events and this year was no exception. This year’s event featured the “Flock Together Hat Set & Adventure,” a new hat set* inspired by drag culture.

Yes, concerns about potential backlash were raised and acknowledged, but the team leaned into their core values and ensured there was alignment with their stakeholders. As Asli Karabulut Ercan, Senior Product Marketing Manager, put it, “It was important to send a clear message to our players that we stand firmly as allies.” Nora Cossa Åkesson, Senior Game Artist, noted the event’s importance for colleagues: “This event was also for our colleagues that we care about. It’s important to be in an environment where everyone feels safe and knows that we support events like Pride.”

One of the biggest challenges in translating drag culture into the game was the technical constraints. Drag is about intricate makeup, high fashion, and detailed styling. The team had to distill that essence into small, bird-sized hats! They worked hard to design hats that were visually strong enough to represent and pay homage to drag culture. This meant actively soliciting input from in and outside the team, reading up on drag literature to educate themselves, and consuming relevant media as inspiration. 

Five months from the Pride event, how does the team reflect on the experience? Gabriela Marchioro, Senior Marketing Artist, shared her candid thoughts: “I feel proud of the team for moving forward with our beliefs, and myself for always working for what is right, to defy hate. Knowing that the project I work on supported marginalized identities, including myself, is why I love my team.”

Tip: Check our Playbook to learn more about how ‘A Diverse and Safe Workspace Unleashes Creativity’ (pages 44 – 48).

In July, our Toronto Studio launched a new game on Apple Arcade called Angry Birds Bounce. In the game, players can collect all of their favorite birds to defeat the hordes of pigs. As of today, the game has a cast of 13 collectable characters, including Jo, a non-binary bird. Jo inspires the pigs to dance so much that the pigs either light on fire (from soooooo much dancing!) or the pigs become enamoured with Jo and stop attacking the Birds.

Tip: Check our Playbook to learn more about how ‘Crafting Inclusive Narratives’ (pages 21 – 30).

In conclusion, making games that include everyone is important. It’s not just the right thing to do. It’s also key to a successful and modern gaming industry. We may not get it right all the time, but as game developers, our hope is that gaming is a space where everyone is welcome and represented, since it is important for the industry as well as the betterment of society as a whole.

*Hat set: In Angry Birds 2, players can collect decorative hats for their birds that not only make them look fun and unique, but also multiply the points they earn during gameplay. These hats come in themed sets (like Halloween or Christmas collections) and can be won through events, challenges, or purchased in the game’s shop.