After beginning as sketches in 2009, Battle Bears has evolved into a franchise game for SkyVu Entertainment. See more orginal artwork at battlebears.com.
In August 2009, Ben Vu, founder and CEO of SkyVu Entertainment, came to us with a news pitch for an iOS game he described as ” ‘Care Bears’ meets ‘Black Hawk Down.’ ” Intrigued, we reviewed the app in a post titled “SkyVu Pictures releases Battle Bears iPhone app.”
Today, thanks to that first app, which was later renamed Battle Bears: Zombies!, SkyVu is announcing two milestones. Battle Bears, which is now a character brand with five different games, is turning 2 years old, and SkyVu, the maker of a few other apps outside of Battle Bears, hit the 12 million download mark for combined downloads on iOS and Android (paid and free apps).
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To celebrate, SkyVu is letting fans do what they do best – shoot the heads off the deceivingly adorable Huggables – for free. Through Monday, Battle Bears Blast will be a free download in Apple’s app store.
Of the 12 million downloads, Vu said around 10 percent are paid apps. He also said that 26 percent of premium app users – all paid apps – end up buying at least one in-app purchase, which he said is a notable percentage for the games industry.
A few more SkyVu facts for the day:
- SkyVu now averages over 100,000 app downloads per week.
- There are five more Battle Bears games in development.
- On the heels of a sellout booth at this year’s Comic-Con, SkyVu will be expanding the Battle Bears toy and apparel lines, which will reach U.S. retailers in early 2012.
Here’s a Battle Bears short the SkyVu team released earlier this year:
For more on SkyVu, see our recent post: “SkyVu cleans up at Comic-Con, presses on with big projects“.
