Kotaku has learned that Greg Canessa, the man who ran Xbox Live Arcade at the Xbox 360's launch for Microsoft and has since served as vice president of game platforms at PopCap is joining the team at World of Warcraft and Diablo studio Blizzard.

Blizzard has shown an interest in casual gaming recently, weaving PopCap's popular Peggle game into WoW earlier this year and Bejeweled before it.

Peggle, like PopCap's other popular games, was primarily played as a downloadable PC title, lumping it into the casual gaming category with the company's other hits Zuma and Bejeweled.

But in an interview with me earlier this year, Canessa said that Peggle proved its hit potential with a more hardcore crowd and that PopCap seized upon its success with the Half-Life-oriented version of Peggle offered on Steam. (It was also on Canessa's watch overseeing XBLA that the Geometry Wars became a hit also with hardcore gamers).

What Canessa seemed proud of in that context was merging casual game design with hardcore appetites.

And now WoW's got Peggle. And Blizzard now has Canessa.

Blizzard did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Evil puzzle scientists PopCap - makers of Bejewelled, Bejewelled-Twist and Bejewelled-Just-One-More-Go-HAHAHAHA-We-Own-Your-Soul-Now - have decided that what the Zombie world needs is a dose of good old fashioned family values. And probably puzzles.

Quoth PR rep, Garth Chouteau:

It’ll be a few months, but our next new game will be worth the wait… “zombie apocalypse,” the PopCap way: no blood, no gore, but blood-curdlingly fun and addictive just the same.

PopCap’s next game to be a family friendly zombie apocalypse? [The BBPS]

The gameplay gimmick that separates Beweled Twist from its Bejeweled precursors? Instead of swapping gems in a 2x1 space, you'll rotate them in a 2x2 square. Can you believe this was accomplished in just three years of development?

If sounds like your cup of tea, or the cup of tea of someone you deeply care about, hit up PopCap to download the thing now.

Bejeweled Twist [PopCap]

Details are scant, as PopCap is keeping the twist in Bejeweled Twist under wraps. The publisher plans to unveil the game at a gala event at Seattle's Experience Music Project Sci-Fi Museum and Hall of Fame on October 27. No, they're no kidding, not even when they say the gala will be "the most spectacular launch event in casual games history."

The most spectacular launch event in casual games history and we have the good fortune to be alive when it happens.

What's interesting on top of packing one world-class timesuck inside of another (in real world terms, this would be like snorting bacon-flavored meth), is how it all came to pass. Michael Fromwiller, a student at San Jose State, wrote an add-on he called Besharded, which came reasonably close to mimicking PopCap's hit. But it didn't come close enough for PopCap, which instead of sending out a C&D letter, reached out to Fromwiller and hired him to do a version of the real thing. Next week it's available for WoW, with no opposition from Blizzard. Wired has the word straight from PopCap itself, but a no-comment from Blizzard.

Bejeweled, Warcraft Combine to Form World's Most Addictive Game [Wired]

It is very much a multiplatform, multichannel, multipartner business where our goal is to get our games anywhere they're going to be great, anywhere we can. If your fridge can make a great Bejeweled experience, by god, we'd have your fridge playing Bejeweled.

Zuma and Bejeweled had big game followings, but Peggle has overtaken the gaming community in a way that none of our games have ever really done that. It was dramatically sped up by Peggle Extreme, and we're trying to think of other things as well with Peggle and seeing if that works with other things. Some games... you couldn't do a mash-up of Bejeweled and Half-Life. That would only suck.

There's lots of talk about expansion into other marekts (mobile, console, etc.) and where PopCap is headed next. It's an engaging interview on the subject of one of casual gaming's biggest forces.

PopCap: The Complexity Of Being Casual [Gamasutra]

...first of all, it's not true, because originally I granted my rights to Tetris to my Computer Center, to my organization, for 10 years. And when those 10 years expired, I got my rights back. And since 1996, I've been receiving some royalties for it. And I'm pretty happy with what I'm getting now. And I never complain about those 10 years, either... In order to fight for my rights for the rest of my life, I decided to give it up for a while and make it happen. This decision should be done before people realize what we've given them.

Bejeweled for iPhones was created by Polish developer Arkadiusz Mlynarczyk, is available now, and is free to use. The developer only asks that players consider donating a vowel or two, something apparently in short supply in Poland.

I just played the thing and it was slow as molasses, but definitely kept me interested well beyond the Safari download by a good five minutes. Interested in taking your $600 cellphone into the twenty-first century of casual gaming? Just direct your iPhone to popcapgames.com and start tapping.

I am intrigued by Joel Johnson's post over on Dethroner about Puzzle Quest and not just because hearing Johnson enthuse about a game is almost akin to seeing Regan cry about policy problems.

In his latest Games... for Men piece (well the comments for it), Johnson confesses that he whiled away a big chunk of his weekend playing the game that marries a Bejeweled knock-off to a role-playing game. Sounds a lot like Chess Kingdom but with Bejeweled and RPG instead of chess and a turned-based strategy.

I'll have to check out the PC version, but this strikes me as something I'm really going to love on the PSP or, better still, the DS with its sexy stylus controls. Brian Crecente

Games...for Men: Puzzle Quest Demo [Dethroner]

"Game Lounge's unique platform is engaging the minds of both parents and children and bringing family game night back to DirecTV households across the country," said Eric Shanks, executive vice president, DirecTV Entertainment.

DirecTV Enters Casual Gaming Market With Game Lounge [Gamasutra]

With mainstream video game release budgets creeping well over $20 million, developers and publishers can take solace in the fact that casual games are cheap and less time consuming to produce. Right? Wrong.

Popcap Games newest, Bookworm Adventures, cost the company some $700,000 and 2 1/2 years to produce. That's a big chunk of cash, but with the segment (mostly 30 and older, female, married) expected to spend some $953 million on casual games this year alone, it sounds like a sound investment.

While Bookworm Adventures might be an atypical release, it shows that the market is growing and being taken seriously by publishers and investors. It will be interesting to see how the segment raised on Bejeweled survives and what impact it has on mainstream gamers. I'm assuming it means the hardcore will have to buy back up consoles and PC's when their mothers and/or girlfriends start dominating the machines. Michael McWhertor

Casual games go upscale [CNN]

The Australian Lottery Commission have capitalized on the world's insane Bejeweled Mania by releasing a themed lottery ticket after the famed PopCap casual game. F for Effort, Lottery Commission. When have you ever seen that layout of gems on a Bejeweled field? Thanks, Matt! Florian Eckhardt

In downtown San Francisco earlier today, big brother site Gizmodo was deployed to cover the Apple Showtime event. Along with new Nanos, Shuffles, updated iPods, new iTunes movie store, and iTV, Apple unveiled its new video game line-up for the iPod. Titles include: Tetris, Bejeweled, Pac-Man, Cubis 2, Mahjon, Mini Golf, Texas Hold'em, Vortex and Zuma. Not bad for device whose previously "games" included Brick, Parachute, Solitaire and Music Quiz. The Giz guys even have a handy guide on how to get iPod games to work on your 5G iPod. Where are these iGames available? At the iTunes stores. When? Right now! Brian Ashcraft

Get Yer 5G iPod to Play Games [Gizmodo]

PopCap, a company the rules the roost in most of the world with their casual games, has nevertheless had problems infiltrating Japan.

Have no fear. Square Enix to the rescue!

PopCap Games will be taking its casual games titles to Japan under a new distribution deal inked with Square Enix.

Titles such as Bejeweled 2, Chuzzle, Insaniquarium and Heavy Weapon will reach the Japanese market through Square Enix's online web portal.

"We know that our games are ideally suited for the global consumer audience and this agreement with Square Enix will enable us to reach the Japanese market in a major way," commented James Gwertzman, director of business development for PopCap Games.

Not enough hydrocephalic pixies, the Japanese say. Square Enix can help them with that. Florian Eckhardt

Square Enix to help PopCap break Japan [Games Industry]

The answer is two-sided and terrific. On the one hand Bejeweled creator, PopCap Games, says why not, it's no worse than doodling.

But Peter Handal, CEO of Dale Carnegie Training, got all red in the face and stuttery when he saw the game in action and says it would absolutely be rude.

Mr. reaches this conclusion:

Ultimately, you should split the difference. Play the game only if the meeting is really sucky, if you're not expected to speak or take notes, and if your boss is Bejeweled-out enough to go easy on you when you get busted.

Brian Crecente

Mr. Know-It-All [Wired]

Gameloft got their spiel out for Paris Hilton's Jewel Jam in good time, managing not to mention the dreaded B word. You know the one we mean: Bejeweled. And yes, unlike Ms Hilton, Gameloft's rep got the name of their game right.