A massive update to the web-browser based Angry Birds Chrome has been released, updating to v1.2.0. It includes a TON of new awesome features. You can play the game at chrome.angrybirds.com. Details of this update and some helpful links are listed below:

• 42 new levels in the Mighty Hoax
• 25 new levels in Season’s Greedings. Just like the original Seasons Greedings and Wreck the Halls you get one level per day for 25 days.
• 3 unlockable bonus levels at the end of Season’s Greedings. These are access via promotional codes.
• Special Samsung Galaxy Note level (1-5) that’s tied to the Winter Wonderland competition.
• Ability to log in and save your progress! (see warning about this below)
• The Mighty Eagle! Yes, the Mighty Eagle has landed on Chrome as a $0.99 USD in-app purchase, which obviously stores on your account. You can try it for free in Poached Eggs before committing to the purchase.

Notes and Helpful Links

• If you don’t see the new version look for the following text at the bottom of the play window, “A new version is ready. Click to upgrade.” Once click you will get a prompt asking your to restart your game. Click okay and Chrome will update. Your progress should remain and now you’ll see all the new goodness.
• The ability to disable ads. After you click the X to close an ad you’ll be prompted with a message stating, “Tired of ads? Remove ads for 1 week for $0.99; 1 month for $1.99; forever for $3.99″.
• Warning: The log-in ability does not seem to store your progress in the cloud. Perhaps it stores your Mighty Eagle and/or ad-removal purchases, but we haven’t confirmed this yet. So if you want to backup or transfer your progress, be sure to check out our Chrome backup guide.

The New York Times is reporting that Zynga, makers of the ubiquitous FarmVille among other games, offered $2.2 BILLION dollars to buy Rovio and they were turned down. That is an unreal amount of money to turn down and shows the extreme confidence in their brand and their product., both now and going forward.

It’s interesting to note that this buyout attempt from Zynga is their second high profile one this year after their previously failed attempt to buyout PopCap Games – makers of Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled – for $1 Billion. PopCap was later acquired by EA Games for $1.3 Billion.

I think this shows both the power of the mobile/flash games business model, as all of these companies are making games that are insanely popular and played religiously and constantly, as well as the desperation Zynga is showing in growing their business. Good for Rovio for having the confidence in their development plan to turn down the piles of money being thrown at them and here is hoping that they keep up the good work constantly updating and spinning off their awesome games and not nickel & diming users.