San Francisco-based Booyah was founded in 2008 with early money for mobile games from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. It saw its My Town franchise soar into the stratosphere in popularity, only to see it stall. Under a new chief executive, the company is now releasing a new slate of games that it says have put the company back on the growth path.

The Pet Town game is now available in the Apple App Store and it is part of the company’s goal of being the category leader in real-world entertainment.

Read more at Venture Beat.

As odd as it might sound, players follow the exodus of a fed up toucan stuck in interstate, rush hour traffic. Why a bird is driving, who knows, but he leaves the everyday grind to make his way to Pet Town, where “all your dreams come true.” Expectantly, players are the ones responsible for this and must help construct Pet Town into a colorful paradise for animals of all shapes and sizes.

Read more at Gamezebo.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Jan. 19, 2012 – Booyah, a leading developer of real-world social and mobile games, today announced its latest app, Pet Town, is now available on the App Store for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. In Pet Town, players create the ultimate destination for an array of delightful Pets and make their dreams come true. Combining elements of city building gameplay with influences from simulation and role-playing classics like Animal Crossing, Pet Town reinvents a popular genre with Booyah’s signature craftsmanship and real-world elements.

“It’s exciting to see our creative teams deliver such a unique and innovative take on this popular style of play,” said Jason Willig, CEO, Booyah. “With Pet Town, we’ve created a gorgeous, vibrant world where players of all ages have a ton of fun helping charming animals make friends and fulfill their dreams.”

In addition to the launch of Pet Town, Booyah also released a major update to its MyTown 2 App, which has been downloaded more than 3.6 million times by iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users to date. The latest update includes new features such as social gifting and citizen interactions as well as Facebook Connect support. Since release in October, MyTown 2 players have created more than 2.5 million unique real-world businesses in 139,000 cities across 43 countries around the world. In a typical month there are 75 million user sessions and 1.2 billion real-world business interactions.

Both the Pet Town and MyTown 2 Apps take advantage of features in iOS 5, including integrated Twitter support and iCloud storage.

The Pet Town and MyTown 2 Apps are available for free from the App Store on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

For more information, please visit www.booyah.com.

About Booyah
With offices in San Francisco and Seattle, Booyah is a leading mobile & social games publisher. Booyah’s mission is to be the category leader in location-based & real-world gaming. With a leadership team drawn from the world’s top interactive & technology companies including Electronic Arts, Blizzard Entertainment, Google, PopCap, Kabam and Insomniac Games, Booyah’s recent hit games, Early Bird & MyTown 2, have been played by 10 million people worldwide. Booyah is financed by Accel Partners, DAG Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ iFund.

Press Contact:
Brian Cho
Brian.cho@booyah.com

Read full article at Games.com.

Finnish company Grey Area’s Shadow Cities is currently the 13th Top Grossing iPhone app in its homeland, for example. In the US, meanwhile, the 12th Top Grossing app – and that’s out of all apps, not just games – is Booyah’s My Town 2.

Read full article at theguardian.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Oct. 27, 2011 – Booyah, a leading developer of location–based social and mobile games, today announced its latest app, MyTown 2, is now available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. MyTown 2 is the sequel to the most popular location–based games of all time, MyTown, played by over 4.5 million people worldwide. MyTown 2 combines compelling city building gameplay with innovative, location-based social features, allowing players to create and customize the city of their dreams filled with their favorite places from the real world.

“MyTown 2 offers our players a unique, highly-personal take on this incredibly popular genre delivering Booyah’s core vision that ‘where you play matters,’” said Jason Willig, CEO, Booyah. “Gorgeous graphics and sophisticated mechanics combine in a dynamic virtual world that is driven by players’ behaviors in the real world and takes city building to the next level with much more to come.”

Central to the gameplay of MyTown 2 are businesses, which are brought into the game using geolocation. Businesses can be upgraded and customized, and their “price” in the game is based on their real-world popularity among all MyTown 2 players. Enhancing one of the most popular and ground-breaking features in the original MyTown, players can “check-in” to real places while they’re on the go and receive an array of unique bonuses, boosts and special rewards.

MyTown 2 takes advantage of features in iOS 5, including integrated Twitter support and iCloud storage. MyTown 2 is available for free from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch at http://itunes.apple.com/app/mytown-2/id442345455

For more information, please visit www.booyah.com.

About Booyah
Booyah, headquartered in San Francisco, is a leading mobile & social games company. Booyah’s mission is to be the category leader in location-based & real-world gaming. The company draws its creativity and inspiration from the mobile, consumer web, social & traditional gaming space with a leadership team drawn from the world’s top interactive companies including Electronic Arts, Blizzard Entertainment, Activision, Ubisoft, LucasArts, Kabam and Insomniac Games. Booyah is financed by Accel Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ iFund. Learn more at www.booyah.com.

Press Contact:
Chris Kramer
fortyseven communications
kramer@fortyseven.com

SAN FRANCISCO – Oct. 7, 2011 – Booyah, the leading maker of location –based social & mobile games, has announced Jason Willig has been named CEO. Willig has been COO at Booyah for the last six months and will assume his new position effective today. Co-Founder Keith Lee will shift his role and take a step back from day-to-day management; Lee will remain a formal strategic advisor and evangelist for Booyah and its products.

“Booyah is on an incredible path,” Willig, CEO, Booyah, said. “In addition to the top performing products we have in the market today, Booyah has a robust calendar on the horizon and a sharp focus on creating innovative, engaging game experiences that leverage location and other real world inputs. This is an exciting time for the company and I’d like to thank Keith Lee for his vision & leadership that brought us to this stage.”

“Booyah has been an absolute passion,” Keith Lee, co-founder and advisor, Booyah, remarked. “Sam, Brian and I are delighted with what we have been able to do in this explosive market and I can think of no one better to helm the next phase for Booyah than Jason.”

In addition to leading Booyah’s studio, product management & business operations teams most recently, Willig brings more than 12 years of interactive & games industry expertise to the CEO desk. He has held leadership positions at Electronic Arts, LucasArts, Gas Powered Games and Vivendi Games.

About Booyah
Booyah, headquartered in San Francisco, is a leading mobile & social games company. Booyah’s mission is to be the category leader in location –based & real-world gaming.  The company draws its creativity & inspiration from the mobile, consumer web, social & traditional gaming space with a leadership team drawn from the world’s top interactive companies including Electronic Arts, Blizzard Entertainment, Glu Mobile, Crowdstar, LucasArts and Insomniac Games.  Booyah is financed by Accel Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ iFund.  Learn more at www.booyah.com.

Press Contact:
Sibel Sunar
fortyseven communications
sibel@fortyseven.com