Battle Bears reaches 20m downloads, billboards “all over” San Francisco

SkyVu Entertainment announced Tuesday that Battle Bears, its popular mobile game franchise that’s on its way to becoming a television show, surpassed 20 million downloads. Originally released in 2009, Battle Bears is currently available in three iterations: Battle Bears -1, Battle Bears: Zombies! and the multiplayer Battle Bears Royale, for which SkyVu recently released an…

Four billboards in San Francisco advertise SkyVu’s Battle Bears game line.

SkyVu Entertainment announced Tuesday that Battle Bears, its popular mobile game franchise that’s on its way to becoming a television show, surpassed 20 million downloads.

Originally released in 2009, Battle Bears is currently available in three iterations: Battle Bears -1, Battle Bears: Zombies! and the multiplayer Battle Bears Royale, for which SkyVu recently released an Android version.

SkyVu founder and Battle Bears creator Ben Vu said in an email that his company is celebrating the downloads milestone with four billboards “all over SF,” including along U.S. Route 101, in the city’s SoMa neighborhood and south of the city in Palo Alto.

“(The) goal was primarily to rally our core fan base to show them something big and in the real world,” Vu said.

The billboards feature pink Huggables – the villains of Battle Bears games – “farting rainbows” at bird characters. The look of the birds and billboard’s text – “Look who’s ANGRY now!” – may call to mind Angry Birds, a popular mobile game franchise, but the birds shouldn’t be unfamiliar to Battle Bears players. Called Nuggs, according to a Battle Bears Wiki, the large spherical birds are similar to balloons. When they are attacked, they swell up and explode, giving the player a power-up.

“Funny note,” Vu said, “the City of SF said no to the rainbow farting, so we strapped a pot-o-gold to Huggable’s back.”

In November, SkyVu asked for ideas of what to put on the billboards and received more than 175 comments from fans.

 

Credits: Photos courtesy of Ben Vu.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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