The GameStop Casual Digital Store, located at http://www.gamestop.com/casual, features the hottest and not-so-hottest casual PC games for purchase, download and play. Powered by RealNetworks, the store features casual and independent titles, from Nancy Drew to Plants Vs. Zombies, with thirty-one titles available for half-off to celebrate the launch of the new service.

"As the leading video game and entertainment software retailer, we continuously look for ways to bring our passion for gaming to the customer visiting us online," said Tony Bartel, executive vice president of merchandising and marketing. "The new Casual Digital Store accomplishes this goal by appealing to an ever-expanding customer demographic looking for value in addition to trusted guidance to ensure they receive the best gaming experience possible."

It sounds a great deal like the casual game download service Amazon.com launched in February, perhaps indicating that while GameStop isn't worried about Amazon's trade-ins, it isn't too keen on being left behind when it comes to digital distribution and the casual market.

At the Develop Conference in Brighton, UK, Thomson gave a session titled "A Game is a Game is a Game". He calls the term casual pejorative. "We may not find a particular type of game amusing or appealing," he said. "But that doesn't stop them from being a game of equal worth to those titles that we do."

Thus, Thomson doesn't want the word "casual" to be used. The label is frustrating for Denki, which is dubbed a casual developer.

"Make the game you love and people who enjoy the things you enjoy will be the audience," he said, wrapping up his session. "If a game is fun people will buy it whatever the label."

We're not entirely convinced "casual" is a derisive label. Shovelware? Crappy? Those are derisive labels.

Gamasutra - News - Develop 2009: Denki Urges Ban On 'Casual' Label [Gamasutra]

Kotaku spoke to Greg Hart, Vice President of Video Games and Software for Amazon.com about the new service, who explained that offering casual games for purchase and download via the popular online shopping marketplace is a boon to both customers and developers. Customers benefit by having a safe place to download their games with the same quality and convenience they've come to expect from Amazon.com, while casual developers who have never released a retail box have the online equivalent of a big box retailer where they can display their wares.

Customers are able to download and try any game sold through the service for 30 minutes, after which they can either purchase the full game or forget they ever played it. As a special promotion good for the first week only, customers can download full versions of Jewel Quest II, The Scruffs, an Built-A-Lot completely free of charge.

So why casual games, instead of just going for an all-encompassing online store model like Valve's Steam?

"Casual Games are a natural fit with our demographic," explains Hart. "We have 88 million active customers who can appreciate the convenience of the true amazon shopping experience combined with the casual games experience." The man makes a very good point. The person who spends a great deal of time browsing Amazon.com is open to new experiences on their computers, and quick, inexpensive casual games delivered by a trusted source should prove extremely popular to the shopping masses.

That's not to say that the Game Downloads section won't expend into other, more mainstream titles in the future. "We always want to offer the widest selection possible, just like we've done with our boxed games over the past two years."

So don't worry, Valve. With Amazon focused strictly on providing inexpensive casual titles to the shopping masses, they are no threat to your digital download empire at all. For now.

Amazon Game Downloads [Amazon.com]

"We are entering a future that many in the game industry are still denying and fighting against," says Clickz's Kevin Carney, "We are watching the icon of gaming, the console, quickly and ungraciously bow to the internet."

You see, it is not just any old casual gaming - it is web-based casual gaming with an advertising-based revenue model. "Here's the beauty of this transition: advertisers are the prime movers. Online games are typically funded through advertising revenue," continues Carney.

Carney's theory may be slightly filtered through the web marketing-based publication he is writing for - most of his readership stand to gain from a boom in casual games, after all - but he does make the case that improvements in gameplay don't necessarily follow from improvements in console power.

Anyone out there ready to trade Gears 2 for Zoo Keeper?

“Consoles are facing competition and extinction” [Casual Gaming]

The irRegular Game of Life [Kongregate via IndieGames]

WildTangent Suffers Studio Closure [Edge]

Fishing Girl is a simple fishing game played with one button. It illustrates a design pattern called sequentially linked mechanics. Often when you try to simulate a complex exercise like fishing, you can’t easily create a single game mechanic that captures the entire experience. Instead, you string together a series of activities. Each activity is simplistic by itself, but in sequence yields a good approximation of the complex experience. The fishing game is split into the following activities:

1. Casting
2. Positioning the lure
3. Hooking a fish
4. Reeling in the fish
5. Scoring the fish
6. Buying new equipment.

Each section should take 1-3 evenings to prototype in Flash. String them all together and you have a fishing game. The nice thing about this challenge is that it is all about bite sized chunks that are easy to build and iterate on.

I'll be looking forward to seeing the results and seeing if someone manages to put together a 'gold medal design.'

Fishing Girl: Game Prototyping Challenge [Lost Garden]

HDOS Databank request 01 [Game Reclaim via IndieGames] [Update: mirror at Kongregate]

I estimate this year that you'll see EA enter this space for some of their games, and a few other big names are absolutely interested. In fact we're in final negotiations with a couple of recognizable names.

We tend to estimate the size of the total pre-paid gaming card business when we do our numbers, and this year we're looking to something between $75-100 million dollars in sales across North America. We see that going to $250-300million in 2009 and being in the region of a half-billion by 2010.

We see this market growing dramatically in the next two to five years.

The whole interview is an interesting look at how the industry deals with retailers via middlemen like GMG; it also points to the popularity of these models that many 'serious' gamers tend to ignore.

The Turner-owned kids brand has commissioned SinoTech, a Beijing-based firm, to create online casual games based on its own characters as well as cartoon characters owned by SinoTech. The deal also gives SinoTech exclusive rights to sell ads around the games, with a focus on tapping new advertisers from China.

SinoTech will develop two games each month that can be deployed on Cartoon Network’s pan-regional site as well its localized site in Taiwan. The games they produce may find their way onto Cartoon Network’s other localized sites in Asia such as Japan and Korea, as well as on a mooted localized site for mainland China that's in the pipeline.

CN is looking for a piece of the casual Chinese pie, though it's doubtful they'll really be able to challenge QQ.com; still, CN execs are confident that their targeted kids market will give focus and direction to future marketing efforts.

Cartoon Network’s Chinese Dream [Asia Media Journal]

“We are thrilled to open a studio in Austin as there is such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable game development community,” said Andrew Pedersen, Pogo General Manager. “It’s great to be a part of that spirit and I feel privileged to be working with a team full of game makers who bring such tremendous talent and experience to the Pogo team.”

The Pogo Austin team will be sharing space with EA's BioWare studio in Austin.

EA Opens New Studio in Austin, Texas for Pogo.com Game Development
PICTUREKA! MUSEUM MAYHEM First Retail Title in Development

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced the opening of a new studio, Pogo Austin, which features a dynamite tight-knit ensemble of passionate game developers who have come together to build exciting new games as part of the Pogo.com team. The Pogo Austin team will be joining EA’s Bioware studio in Austin.

The new studio will focus on creating family-friendly titles based on Hasbro properties. The initial team of 12 features a strong foundation of Austin natives who boast more than 108 years of collective game experience and have shipped titles at companies such as LucasArts, Aspyr Media, Acclaim, Amaze Entertainment, Human Code, Origin Systems and Family Time Interactive.

The first title to be released from Pogo Austin is PICTUREKA! MUSEUM MAYHEM. This quirky seek and find game is based on the Hasbro game PICTUREKA! which debuted in 2007 and launched globally in 2008. In the digital version, a player becomes the new curator for a museum and investigates some odd things that are afoot. Someone has been breaking in and re-arranging the exhibits. The frantic director needs the player to restore items to their proper location and catch the person responsible. The game is set to launch online in November at Pogo.com for $19.95 (US) and £11.95 (UK); it will be available at retail in early winter.

“We are thrilled to open a studio in Austin as there is such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable game development community,” said Andrew Pedersen, Pogo General Manager. “It’s great to be a part of that spirit and I feel privileged to be working with a team full of game makers who bring such tremendous talent and experience to the Pogo team.”

“PICTUREKA! MUSEUM MAYHEM has incredibly broad appeal. The game is fun for the entire family, whether you’re six or 106. It brings everyone together and puts kids and adults on equal ground for laugh out-loud moments. We wanted to create an online PICTUREKA! experience that would be equally outrageous for players of all ages,” said Sean Clark, Pogo Austin Studio Director. “Many members of the Austin team have families and it’s exciting to be able to make a game that they can play and share with their children.”

Pogo Austin is the newest addition to the Pogo studio family. There are also studio locations in Redwood City, CA and Shanghai, China. Pogo studios are actively recruiting for: Feature Engineers, Game Engineers and a QA Lead. For any inquiries please visit http://jobs.ea.com.

For more information and to experience some of the best online games on the Internet, visit www.pogo.com.

Marshmallow [forrent via IndieGames]

But as easy as it would be to point to a game like Cunt and say “golly gosh, anyone who plays this game certainly does have more than a few bound-for-your-personal-library issues with female sexuality,” (and holy shit, is it ever), we have to take a step back and survey the landscape, so to speak. Because this game is not unique, it’s not a one-off… it represents a very real and tangible culture of hatred of women that exists within the gaming community. After all, if the developers thought no-one would play the game, they wouldn’t have made it in the first place.

The Acid for Blood piece opines:

However, Edmund McMillen is not just some basement coder or armchair designer. McMillan had a hand in the early development of current Xbox 360 indie darling, Braid, and he co-created the critically praised indie game, Gish. He is a professional game designer (or he has professional aspirations) and he not only thought that Cunt was a good idea, but he thought gamers would play it. Though it is a basic shooting game, Cunt has polish. Not only did people play it, but McMillen was lauded for Cunt:

Were you happy with the response for the game?

I was honestly blown away by it. I really thought people would just write it off or get mad. Somehow it turned into something "punk", and was accepted by the "scene". Too bad the gameplay was lacking. If I knew it was going to get such a positive response I would have designed something more innovative and new for the gameplay.

The reception Cunt got amongst gamers shows how accepted, established, and insidious misogyny is in gaming culture. Cunt is not an isolated case.

Of course there are plenty of (male, heterosexual) gamers who aren't gynophobic misogynists, and there are plenty of misogynists running around who have never picked up a game (never mind Cunt in their life); but there is a pervasive bit of sexism that runs around the community that can be extremely off putting on a number of levels. The fact that so many conversations about issues like these devolve into name-calling and hateful bullshit almost immediately doesn't help matters.

C*nt (the Game): Gynophobia and Misogyny [Acid for Blood]; Gamers and the vagina — the final boss? [Feminist Gamers]

THQ Announces Joint Venture with China Online Operator ICE Entertainment to Bring Casual MMO Title Dragonica to North America in 2009

New Joint Venture Provides North American Platform for THQ Online Games

AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Sep 16, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — THQ Inc. today announced that it has formed a joint venture with ICE Entertainment ("ICE"), an operator of online games located in Shanghai, China, to launch Dragonica, a free-to-play, micro-transaction-based massively multiplayer online ("MMO") casual game scheduled for release in North America in 2009. ICE's Chief Executive Officer Sun Tao is the former Chief Technology Officer of The9, a leading operator of online games including World of Warcraft(R). The new joint venture combines ICE's online operating experience with THQ's product development and retail publishing expertise to create a new platform for online games in the North American market.

"We are extremely excited to be working with ICE Entertainment to bring this free-to-play, micro-transaction-based online game to the robust yet largely untapped market for online casual gaming in North America," said Doug Clemmer, president of THQ's casual gaming subsidiary. "We are even more pleased to be building a strong and mutually beneficial relationship, which we hope will lead to additional opportunities to deliver online gaming content globally."

"We are looking forward to combining THQ's extensive marketing and retail expertise with our advanced technology and proven online game operating know-how to deliver a great new casual gaming experience for North American consumers," said Sun Tao, chief executive officer, ICE Entertainment. "We also look forward to working with THQ more closely to develop new games and explore future publishing opportunities in both markets."

The market opportunity for online casual gaming in North America is estimated to be $2.2 billion by 2013 (Source: DFC Intelligence). China's fast growing online games market was valued at US$1.7 billion in 2007 and reached more than 42 million online gamers. The market is expected to grow to US$4.2 billion by 2010. (Source: Niko Partners).

About Dragonica

Dragonica is a massively multiplayer online casual game developed by Barunson Interactive Co, based in Korea. Dragonica is free-to-play and players may choose to pay for additional content and features on a micro-transaction basis. Barunson Interactive spent seven years developing Dragonica, which brings cartoon side-scrolling action online games to a new peak. The game's totally 3D rendering design, fresh cartoon characters and scenery modeling, create a new visual perception of side-scrolling games. Dragonica skillfully mixes the elements of action and arcade, and creates various ultimate skills to enhance playability. ICE currently has the rights to operate the game in China and plans to commence its closed beta for that market in late 2008.

About ICE Entertainment

Founded in 2006, ICE is an online game operator based in Shanghai, China, with an established online technology platform and proven management team, including CEO Sun Tao, former vice president and chief technical officer of leading Chinese operator The9, among others, with many years of experience in the online game field. ICE is focused on the development and operation of massively multiplayer online games. More information about ICE Entertainment may be found at www.icee.cn.

About THQ

THQ Inc. is a leading worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software. The company develops its products for all popular game systems, personal computers and wireless devices. Headquartered in Los Angeles County, California, THQ sells product through its global network of offices located throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. More information about THQ and its products may be found at www.thq.com. THQ and its respective logo is a trademark and/or registered trademark of THQ Inc.

The outcome of such work isn't important because it's good; it's important because it holds meaning for its creators and their kin. No matter what the VCs and technopundits may say about sharing and aggregation, YouTube and Flickr and the like function as social media because they function first as private media. Our notion of "private" has just expanded somewhat.

If you look closely at sites like Sims Carnival, you'll find the snapshot games hidden among the much less interesting DIY attempts at mainstream casual games. Games about crushes, games celebrating birthdays, games poking fun at celebrities. That site even has an "e-card" section for such games, and premade templates to create games about kissing a date, icing a birthday cake, or celebrating the holidays.

Sims Carnival's tools make the customization process more like Eastman's "we'll do the rest." It's easy for someone to insert fixed assets like text and images — the things they already learned how to create easily in previous eras.

It's worth a read through; there's been a lot of talk about user generated content, and even universities have gotten into the act when it comes to making it easier for non-pros to make pretty, individualized assets. The comparison to casual photography works really well here, and there's no doubt that 'casual' asset design is ever more important to virtual worlds.

Persuasive Games: Video Game Snapshots [Gamasutra]

Most of the findings in this regard are trivial. Hardcore gamers rated themselves higher for the importance of all the emotions we inquired about (and all these findings were highly statistically significant) – which is to say, Hardcore gamers were more emotionally invested in their play, or at least more likely to rate the importance of any emotional factor in their play higher. Hardcore gamers also rated themselves higher on every aspect of game literacy or player skills in the survey (and these results were even more statistically significant). Finally, Hardcore gamers were more interested in games of challenge, structured play (Caillois’ ludus) and games of escapism (acting out in a virtual world) – all of which broadly validated the findings from the earlier DGD1 survey.

But these results obscure something interesting about the players who self-identified as Casual. Firstly, Casual players still play games very often. 81% of those who self-identified as Hardcore said they played videogames everyday, but 49% of Casual players also said they played everyday. Hardcore players gave themselves high marks in game literacy (more than 95% of Hardcore respondents claiming the top two marks, and about three quarters the very top mark), but Casual players didn’t exactly rate themselves low on this (around 85% of Casual respondents claimed the top two marks, and roughly half the very top mark). So while some of these Casual players might be mass market players, many of them are highly game literate players who play videogames every day. (Incidentally, those who were unable to choose between Hardcore and Casual looked remarkably similar to those who self-identified as Casual).

He goes on to say there is a gap between 'casual games' and the so-called 'casual player'; he ends by asking if there's anyway to redefine our terminology in a way that is useful and usable. I think an 'either/or' split is here to stay, at least for a good long while, if for no other reason than people like clear divides — even if they don't correlate to reality.

Redefining Hardcore & Casual [Only A Game]

"If a customer has a hard time getting an item and putting it in a shopping cart, it's going to reduce sales of it," said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail industry consulting and research firm.

That's what Hasbro and EA are trying to get around with the upcoming "N-Strike" game. Johnson said he expects retailers to make similar arrangements this holiday season with related products from other game and toy companies.

If it were up to game makers, such arrangements would be the rule. Ubisoft, for instance, makes a line of personal improvement and education games under its "Coach" brand that it would like to sell in related areas of retail stores, rather than in the games department.

But few analysts expect retailers to make wide-scale changes anytime soon. One reason is fear of theft. Games, particularly in the first four weeks after they are released, are frequently stolen, said Joel Alden, a principal at A.T. Kearney, a management and consulting firm.

I'm lazy and have Amazon Prime, so I can't remember the last time I was in a brick and mortar store to purchase things like books and games, but I have a hard time seeing big box retailers moving gaming inventory from glass boxes — though I suspect real concern is over big, popular titles that would be magnets for sticky fingers. Will gaming break through the glass window on a large scale anytime soon?

Game industry tries to break through glass wall [San Jose Mercury News via PlayNoEvil]

Hexiom Connect [Kongregate via IndieGames]

From the sound of it, the strength of European currencies against the dollar has something to do with it. But Guillemot also says the market's growing because gamers are becoming "more accessible" to European games, and of course flacks Ubisoft titles as leading the charge. EndWar (out in October) features voice commands, for example. So will Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., out next year.

"A game like EndWar, for example, which you can control by voice - it's totally changing the industry because it gives you the opportunity to command what's happening, and to have a quick answer to the orders you give," he said. "And it's the same for a lot of other games, like the party games you can play - the games with guitars are also helping things to increase the fun, and bring more people. Because when you have fun with your family on the game, you take them into more games with you."

If Europe is indeed Ubisoft's biggest market, fine, I don't know their numbers. But this to me sounds like sour grapes for getting beaten up by U.S. critics and gamers, especially over its Wii titles, and more than a little justification for going so heavy on the casual stuff. Whether that's retroactive justification — or pre-emptive — bears watching.

Ubisoft: Europe is Now Our Biggest Territory [Gamesindustry.biz, via Joystiq]

FkConflict [Blaine Hodge via IndieGames]