King Teams Up With Actress And Singer Vanessa Hudgens To Bring Magical, Bubble-Filled Wonderland Of Bubble Witch 3 Saga To Life With One-Of-A-Kind, Interactive Pop-Up In NYC

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Mar 23, 2017, 10:01 ET

NEW YORK, March 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- King, a leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world and creators of hit mobile games such as Candy Crush, today celebrated the launch of its latest release, Bubble Witch 3 Saga, with an adult-only, immersive, laser tag pop-up experience in the heart of New York City. The one-of-a-kind event opened to New Yorkers following the release of a nationwide survey by King, which revealed that American adults have a desire to escape the stresses of everyday life and are looking for new ways to escape reality and have more fun.

Hot on the heels of the survey and ever-growing adult playtime trends such as escape rooms and giant ball pits, King teamed up with singer-actress Vanessa Hudgens to host a fully immersive, enchanted pop-up experience in New York, inviting adults to connect with their inner-child, join in on the fun and escape their hectic schedules and daily stressors. The whimsical pop-up saw Bubble Witch 3 Saga come to life through a reimagined game of laser tag, where two teams navigated through the maze of Stella's enchanted forest and completed a series of bubble-shooting challenges. King recreated the new elements from the game to bring the game's fantasy world to players on a grand scale including the brand new aiming line and Stella's magical house.

"Playing Bubble Witch 3 Saga is the perfect way to relax when I have a bit of spare time on set. It gives me a perfect opportunity to escape for a few minutes!" said Vanessa Hudgens. "I really enjoyed practicing my bubble shooting skills at the Bubble Witch 3 Saga laser tag course in New York City - all the different game features were brought to life. It really blurred the lines between reality and the Bubble Witch world!"

"It was really exciting to see Bubble Witch 3 Saga come to life through this unique, interactive laser tag pop-up experience in New York City," said Juan Antonio Perez, Lead Producer on Bubble Witch 3 Saga. "At King we seek to create small moments of escape on a daily basis with our mobile games, to provide our dedicated players with the few minutes of coveted fun they desire. With Bubble Witch 3 Saga, we set out to enhance the player experience, introducing new gameplay features including lots of new bubble-shooting challenges and more precision and accuracy with the improved extended aiming line. We hope people enjoy playing the game and escaping to a magic, fun-filled world."

King Survey Results:
The research, which looked at adult attitudes towards fun and escapism in the U.S., found that a staggering 90 percent of American adults see society today as more stressful and are exploring new ways to create moments of escape. The survey findings revealed 78 percent of Americans do not think it's natural or acceptable for adults to stop having fun as they get older and yet, nearly half (46%) say that the amount of fun that adults had in recent years has decreased.

When asked how much time they think they would need to distract themselves and escape moments of tension and stress, nearly half (40 percent) of Americans said that a few minutes each day is all they crave. 71 percent of Americans find mobile gaming to be an effective way of escaping reality and seeking day-to-day distraction.

Additional highlights from King's survey include*:

Nearly 1 in 3 (30 percent) of adults say they're unable to take break because they feel a pressure to be "always on." In fact, the same percentage admit they've delayed going to the bathroom because they didn't have the time for a break!
55percent of American describe their desire to take breaks from daily stressors as "me time" while nearly 1 in 3 millennials (30 percent) describe this time as "escaping from reality"

Bubble Witch 3 Saga is available to download for free from the Apple App Store, Google Play, Amazon App store, Windows App Store and Facebook. To learn more about Bubble Witch 3 Saga visit Bubblewitch3saga.com.

*additional survey findings available upon request

About King

King is a leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world. It had 355 million monthly active users as of fourth quarter 2016 across web, social and mobile platforms, and has developed more than 200 exclusive games that are enjoyed all around the world through its king.com and royalgames.com websites, Facebook, and mobile distribution platforms such as the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Microsoft Windows App Store and Amazon Appstore. King was acquired by Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) in February 2016. King has game studios in Stockholm, Malmö, London, Barcelona, Berlin and Seattle, along with offices in San Francisco, Malta, Tokyo, and Bucharest.

Survey Methodology

Research findings are based on a survey conducted by Morar Consulting fielded across the US between March 6-13, 2017. For this survey 1,009 nationally representative U.S. adults ages 18+ were asked various questions regarding the topic of Escapism including why, how, when and where Americans seek moments of escapism and 'me-time'. In this survey, 'Escapism' and 'me-time' refers to breaks that individuals take from everyday life. Respondents are recruited through a number of different mechanisms, via different sources to join the panels and participate in market research surveys. All panelists have passed a double opt-in process and complete on average 300 profiling data points prior to taking part in surveys. Respondents are invited to take part via email and are provided with a small monetary incentive for doing so. Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 % percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

SOURCE King