Mobile gamemaker Ucool launches a TV ad blitz for Heroes Charge

Mobile-game publisher Ucool is launching a holiday advertising campaign for its Heroes Charge mobile battle arena card game with an unusual tactic: television advertising. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company is launching a TV advertising campaign on Comedy Central, Adult Swim, and other cable channels worldwide to make a big push for the holidays.

The move is a rare big bet on the mass market reach of television, but it’s also another sign that mobile gaming is growing up. Worldwide, mobile games are expected to reach $30 billion in revenues in 2015, surpassing overall revenues for console games, according to market researcher Newzoo. Rival Machine Zone also launched a TV campaign with supermodel Kate Upton to recruit more users for Game of War: Fire Age. But while that game has been generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the past year, Ucool’s game is less established.