Normally when a company goes public – which means you can buy stock in it – it is the start of great things and great success, but it hasn’t looked that way for Rovio. Just five months after going public, their stock price fell by half, and it looks like that is just the start of their woes. Only days ago, the head of Rovio’s games, Wilhelm Taht, stepped down from his position, leaving the company for good. On the same day, Rovio also announced the closure of their London studio after just a year of operation.

Things have been happening somewhat confusingly at Rovio. As the creator of one of the most successful mobile games of all time – Angry Birds – the company has been doing rather well. The release of the Angry Birds film was not a smash success but still garnered over $100 million in profits worldwide. Despite 2017 being their best year, Rovio has indicated that 2018 won’t go as well. While the company hasn’t exactly indicated why, this was marked first by the stock plummeting, then by losing Taht as head of games, and now the closure of their London office.

The London studio, which opened in January of 2017, was working on a title separate from the Angry Birds franchise on something in the “MMO game genre”. Reports from the studio indicated all was going well before the closure. The head of the studio, Mark Sorrell, said that the London studio’s “first half results were fantastic.” Despite this, the small studio, of just seven people, was shut down entirely as Rovio said it would be focusing its attention in Finland where the rest of the company is based.

Though Taht reportedly stepped down for “personal reasons”, it feels an awful lot like he is jumping ship. With only two months of the new year gone, it seems like Rovio is anticipating very bad things in the near future with the closing of one studio and the loss of their head of games.

All of this may be related to recent efforts by Rovio to enter into the esports market. Rovio has already pushed for the Angry Birds franchise to enter into esports with Angry Birds Champions, but news about the London studio’s work indicates that they might have had bigger plans. Rovio announced they would still be using the work done at the London studio for “real-time player vs. player and team vs. team games.” Rovio has one competitive property already in Battle Bay, but it has never reached the success of Angry Birds.

While no details have yet been released, the closing of a studio working on a new competitive game coupled with recent news may indicate that Rovio is having more trouble than they anticipated entering into the esports market. Even more difficult for the company will be creating longevity in the mobile market when interest in mobile games generally lasts less than a year before dropping significantly.