Hotel Transylvania: CrazyCruise integrates digital and physical play as parents and children collaborate on the playground to restore ancient monster relics to their rightful places

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biba Ventures, the leader in the smart playground movement aimed at decreasing screen time and getting kids outside, announced today the launch of a new interactive playground game entitled Hotel Transylvania: CrazyCruise. The game is based on Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation and features Drac’s pack in a special playground adventure that parallels events from the upcoming film, which releases in theaters on Friday, July 13th. Together, parents and kids can relive the film in a new and innovative way by playing the game to restore magical relics to monster-inhabited islands.

“We’re excited to bring the theme of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation to the playground. This game allows parents and kids to assume the role of the movie’s characters through collaborative gameplay for a playground adventure they’ll never forget,” said Matt Toner, CEO of Biba Ventures. “We’re excited to work with Sony Pictures Consumer Products as they join us in our mission of encouraging kids to play outdoors and motivating parents to join with them.”

Hotel Transylvania: CrazyCruise play session applies Biba’s philosophy of embodied play that kindles the child’s imagination through mobile games while also getting them active and engaged by running around on the playground. The game involves parents holding a smartphone and both child and parent utilizing the playground equipment as a team, traversing the trap-laden islands of various monster tribes (i.e. the monkey bars) and completing on-screen mini-games. The game even allows kids to play hero by rescuing their parents when they get into trouble. The game also leverages augmented reality technology, via Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore, to bring the monsters to life on the playground, allowing children to actively discover and pose alongside their in-game finds for memorable photo moments that can be shared with family and friends on social media.

“We are excited to work with Biba to bring the Hotel Transylvania franchise into the interactive digital space with the mission of helping children learn to use technology responsibly, while increasing their activity and interaction with their parents,” says Jamie Stevens, Sony Pictures Entertainment Executive Vice President of Worldwide Consumer Products. “Hotel Transylvania: CrazyCruise bridges the gap between digital and physical play and allows families to experience the world of Hotel Transylvania in a very unique way.”

The parent-child interaction encouraged by the game not only creates valuable memories, but also encourages moderate to vigorous physical activity on the playground. As studies show, because of increasing screen time, children today are less physically active and spend less time outdoors. Biba’s games address this issue by engaging children in healthy, outdoor play with their parents.

Hotel Transylvania: CrazyCruise is available for download on both Apple and Android operating systems for $3.99. For more information on Biba Ventures, visit http://bibaventures.com.  

About Biba
Founded in 2014, Biba Inc. is turning playgrounds across North America and beyond into smart playgrounds that re-engage parents and children through its augmented reality games and mobile apps. Cities and jurisdictions from all over benefit from Biba, as it uses the smartphones found in every parents’ pocket or purse to unlock new and exciting games every time a family visits the playground. Biba games also have a second mission – to address the problem of youth sedentariness and screen-fixation and turn it into healthy gameplay. Research has shown that Biba games help kids play longer, harder and more often, resulting in much better habits and health outcomes.

About Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
In Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, join our favorite monster family as they embark on a vacation on a luxury monster cruise ship so Drac can take a summer vacation from providing everyone else's vacation at the hotel. It’s smooth sailing for Drac’s Pack as the monsters indulge in all of the shipboard fun the cruise has to offer, from monster volleyball to exotic excursions, and catching up on their moon tans. But the dream vacation takes a dangerous turn when Mavis realizes Drac has fallen for the human captain of the ship, Ericka, who holds a mysterious secret that threatens them all. Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and written by Genndy Tartakovsky and Michael McCullers, the film is produced by Michelle Murdocca.

About Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc., which is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition, and distribution; television production, acquisition, and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies. SPE’s Motion Picture Group production organizations include Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Stage 6 Films, AFFIRM Films, and Sony Pictures Classics. For additional information, visit http://www.sonypictures.com/corp/divisions.html.

About Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation produces a variety of animated and family entertainment for audiences around the world.  The studio is following its worldwide comedy hits—the record-breaking monster comedies Hotel Transylvania and Hotel Transylvania 2, the hybrid live action/animated blockbusters The Smurfs and The Smurfs 2, and the mouth-watering Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies—with the fully animated reboot Smurfs: The Lost Village available on digital and Blu-ray now; a surprising and comic take at the secret world inside our phones with The Emoji Movie now on Digital HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD; the inspirational The Star currently in theaters.  Next will be Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation from director Genndy Tartakovsky in July 2018; and the groundbreaking animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse from the minds of Chris Miller and Phil Lord in December 2018.  The studio, in conjunction with Aardman Animations, has produced two critically acclaimed feature films:  the CG-animated family comedy Arthur Christmas; and the Academy Award® nominated stop-frame animated high-seas adventure, The Pirates! Band of Misfits.  In 2007, Surf's Up also received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Feature Film; a sequel entitled Surf’s Up 2: WaveMania is now available on digital and DVD.  The division, whose first feature film Open Season led to a very successful movie franchise including the brand new Open Season: Scared Silly now available on digital, DVD and Blu-ray, was founded in 2002.  Sony Pictures Animation is a division of the Sony Pictures Motion Pictures Group.

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Media Contact:
Kayla Prasek
Uproar PR for Biba
321.236.0102 x 233
kprasek@uproarpr.com