San Francisco, Apr 15 (IANS): Rovio Entertainment, the creator of the iconic Angry Birds mobile game franchise, may be acquired for $1 billion by Sega, the Japanese video game and entertainment company, the media reported.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Sega is close to buying Rovio and the deal may get closed by early next week.

The original Angry Birds game was a super success in 2009, but the franchise has seemingly fallen off since its 2014 peak.

The original was the first mobile game to reach 1 billion downloads, a record certified by Guinness World Records.

'The Angry Birds Movie' was a box-office success and is still the seventh highest grossing video game movie.

Its 2019 sequel, 'The Angry Birds Movie 2', did not achieve the same level of success though.

Rovio in February this year removed its original Angry Birds game from Google Play Store, and renamed the Apple iOS version to Red's First Flight.

"We have reviewed the business case of Rovio Classics: Angry Birds, and due to the game's impact on our wider games portfolio, we have decided that Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will be unlisted from the Google Play Store from February 23," the company had said.

'Rovio Classics: Angry Birds' will remain playable on devices on which the game has been downloaded, even after it has been unlisted.

Earlier, Israeli developer Playtika was reported to be acquiring Rovio for around $800 million but the deal fell off.