Rovio Entertainment, creator of “Angry Birds,” has launched a new mobile game publishing initiative to bring third party titles to its game lineup.

“Rovio Entertainment has positioned itself as one of the powerhouses of mobile entertainment, so moving into publishing is a logical step for us at this point,” says Jami Laes, executive vice president of games, Rovio. “We want to help our fans find quality entertainment among the more than 100,000 games available in app stores. That’s where Rovio Stars comes in.”

The first game to be published under the Rovio Stars program will be “Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage” by Nitrome, which will follow the adventures of a lone Viking. “Icebreaker” will be followed by “Tiny Thief” from 5 Ants.

“In the course of our work, we run into so many fantastic upcoming titles–games with memorable characters and entertaining gameplay that are also just really fun to play,” says Kalle Kaivola, director of development, Rovio. “These are the sorts of titles we’re interested in. We want to help the developers to give these games that last coat of polish, publish the games and find their audience. We’re focusing on a small, select number of games, and each Rovio Stars launch will be an event of its own.”