You pays yer money, you gets yer Mighty Eagle.
Nokia is launching in-app payments and subscription billing on its Ovi Store, allowing developers to make money from their games and apps beyond sales and advertising.
Rovio's Angry Birds is one of the first games to take advantage, with CEO Mikael Hed joining Nokia's developer boss Purnima Kochikar on-stage to announce the new feature.
"We recognise that in our industry a great majority of downloads are given away," she said, before unveiling Nokia's plans for in-app payments.
In Angry Birds, players will now be able to buy a 'Mighty Eagle' bird, which flattens an entire level at a stroke. It's designed to be used when a player is irredeemably stuck.
"Mighty Eagle is declaring the end of games as a commodity, and the beginning of games as a service," said Hed.
He also confirmed that Angry Birds has now sold more than seven million copies - although he didn't say how many of those were on Ovi Store versus iPhone's App Store.
The new Mighty Eagle feature will use Nokia's new in-app purchases, but will presumably also be available on iPhone.
Even so, Hed had warm words for Nokia as a platform provider this morning. "We look forward to a long and profitable future on Ovi Store."
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