Between 2009 and 2014, SkyVu Entertainment and its Battle Bears games became a sign of Omaha’s inevitable rise to national prominence.

In 2009 Ben Vu, the founder of SkyVu Entertainment, launched their first game Battle Bears. Within a year they had 6 million downloads. In two years, 12 million. Battle Bears games–of which there were many–regularly topped the Apple Store charts.

And the Battle Bears brand was receiving regular national attention from CNN to Comic Con. There were Battle Bears toys, apparel, stickers, comic books, even talk of an animated television show. The company even put up billboards in San Francisco to celebrate reaching 20 million downloads.

The company expanded to a larger office in Omaha’s Aksarben Village to keep up with its growing team and to tap into the university’s nearby talent pool.

To all outside observers, the company was simply on track from success to success, proving to other aspiring game developers in the region that they really could make it big outside of the West Coast.

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Warning signs

When the company released another version of Battle Bears in 2014 called Battle Bears Ultimate, the franchise had reached over 20 million downloads. Then the new game ran into problems.

“We had some technical issues so we took it down and re-released it as Battle Bears Overclock,” said Vu. “It took quite a while to get it up off the ground. We had some decent success with that, but it wasn’t the level of success we had previously had with Battle Bears Gold.”

An increasingly competitive and maturing marketplace for mobile 3D first-person shooters was taking a major toll on the game studio as well.

“We saw companies such as Supercell and EA and the Chinese companies move into the Western markets with similar mobile action-based games that we had to compete against,” said Vu. “User acquisition costs went through the roof.”

According to Vu, the market became almost impossible for mid-sized game studios like SkyVu.

“To go into the mobile games market now, you are either a viral hit, or you have the cash to to do a sustained, strong marketing drive to drive users into your game. It’s either one or the other,” said Vu.

Hard decisions

In response to increasing stress on the company, Vu made the decision to shrink the SkyVu team, focus on providing support to their flagship games, and find a new direction for the company. They also closed their offices in Aksarben Village.

“It was a very challenging time,” said Vu. “You have to objectively look at the road ahead, and objectively look at the marketplace, and find out where those new opportunities are for growth. Sometimes that involves a shift in strategy, sometimes that involves a reduction in team size. Those decisions are never easy, and they weigh heavily, but at the end of the day, as a leader, you have to make those decisions.”

Vu still wonders what, if anything, could have made a difference.

“I think about it a lot, in terms of what we could have done,” said Vu. “Could the game have been like this? Could the game have been like that? Could this featured have turned the tide? But with the resources you have, you have to calculate those moves very carefully.”

The company still supports their two flagship games, Battle Bears Gold and Battle Bears Overclock.

“We still have a steady Battle Bears fanbase which helps us out a lot in terms of cash flow,” said Vu. “That is allowing us to explore our options and invest more into VR.”

Vu’s next act: Places VR

In 2015 Vu started investing more resources into virtual reality and augmented reality development. The new app, currently in closed beta, is called Places VR, a mobile virtual reality software platform that will allow anyone to meet online inside a 3D environment.

“We’re out to revolutionize the way people meet online. We believe that mobile VR is opening doors to provide immersive experiences,” said Vu. “We want to provide the easiest and fastest way to meet online.”

It’s not a game, and it’s clear that Vu sees this as an opportunity to escape the niche of both games and kids.

“We were looking for a way to reach more people beyond the teen age group we specialized in with Battle Bears,” said Vu.

The company has dropped “Entertainment” from its official name. They are now “SkyVu, Inc.” doing business as “Places VR.”

The new direction also offers a way for the company to enter a wide open market with less competition, where they can build a user community at ground level and grow along side new technology.

“With AR and VR we are aiming to get ahead of the curve,” said Vu.

With recent large investments in VR from Facebook, Google and HTC, Vu sees the future of virtual reality as going way beyond tech enthusiasts to reach ordinary people.

“I believe that VR has reached a point where it’s on the cusp of ubiquity,” said Vu.

Developing under constraints

Although a major departure from their previous apps, Vu is bringing his experience of developing Battle Bears to his latest project.

“Developing and publishing a real time, multiplayer mobile game has taught us a lot about what type of applications will perform well on a mobile device,” said Vu.

One of the biggest challenges is creating a platform that respects the constraints of smart phones.

“We see space on everyone’s device as very precious,” said Vu. “The growth curve of space on devices is not as fast as performance, same with memory, same with battery life. Even though performance and broadband speeds are faster, battery life and space are critical issues.”

According to Vu, the amount of time people are spending with smartphone-based VR headsets is quickly hitting the wall of phone battery life.

“Our beta testers are averaging a very high average session length. Google is seeing the same thing, with sessions at 30 minutes. [Other apps] will drain that battery in 30 minutes. Places VR won’t do that,” said Vu.

Learning from the past

Vu plans to avoid the crowded market that Battle Bears struggled against by forming partnerships early on.

“We are in talks with Google’s VR team as well as Facebook’s Oculus team, which had one of our engineers go out to their Launch Pad program,” said Vu. “These partnerships will allow us to get to market earlier and get in front of users at this particular time.”

Instead of trying to make the next viral hit, Vu is focusing on a strategy that will reap rewards many years in the future.

“Our goal is grow our user base rapidly as the VR user base grows rapidly in coming years,” said Vu. “As the VR market matures, we will be in a good spot to solidify our users by more traditional methods.”

Similar to Battle Bears, the app will be free-to-play with in-app purchases available with virtual currency.

“Common feedback in the VR world is, ‘I just paid $20 for a tech demo,’” said Vu. “Obviously, we don’t think that’s good for the VR development community. We aim to deliver a premium long-term experience in a freemium package.”

The potential revenue streams, however, go far beyond the freemium model. Businesses or other power users will be able to subscribe at higher levels. There’s also opportunities to sell tickets to exclusive virtual events or to offer replayable experiences.

“Imagine you could relive a time with your family or relive a time in history, like a famous president debate,” said Vu. “The architecture and platform we’re building to power these sorts of things is what really excites me.”

What’s next

Places VR is expected to launch later this year, depending on the release of Google Daydream, Google’s smartphone based virtual reality headset.

“We don’t know the exact date on that, but it’s going to be coming later this fall,” said Vu.

Vu will pitching Places VR at the Rise of the Rest competition in Lincoln, where they will be showing off their work with FC Barcelona, one of the world’s largest soccer clubs with 150 million followers.

“They want to create a virtual reality engagement area where their fans can have a more immersive experience of the game and the players,” said Vu.

“Just keep going”

Vu originally started SkyVu to make animated films. Out of that came a mobile 3D first person shooter franchise. Now he’s attempting to create an online mobile virtual reality meeting platform. What’s the common thread?

“The mission for SkyVu has always been to make a billion lives happier or better,” said Vu. “What gets me excited about Places VR is that this is a great opportunity to fulfill that mission because I believe it can improve the lives of a billion people. That’s what keeps me going.”

For Vu, Battle Bears was big. But it wasn’t nearly big enough.

“We got partially there with Battle Bears with 30 million downloads, but it’s not a billion. So let’s keep going. Just keep going,” said Vu. “I used to work for Phil Knight at Laika. His book [Shoe Dog] really reminded me of the importance of ‘just keep going.’ Unlike ‘Just Do It,’ his motto in life was, ‘Just keeping going.’ He started Nike with $5,000. That’s inspiring.”

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Ryan Pendell is the Managing Editor of Silicon Prairie News.