'Skills That Are Waiting to be Turned Into Games'

Casual Gamers? Serious Business

Casual gamers want better! Their expectations are becoming high says Ubisoft. According to the company's Games For Everyone executive producer Pauline Jacquey, it's competitors that are raising the stakes. Says Jacquey:

When you’re reaching out to somebody who plays one or two games a year, it’s very easy. You don’t need to follow the rules of previous markets. But as they play more and competitors emerge, you have to rethink the way you do the games. The casual audience is becoming more demanding, for sure, and we need to make sure we’re proving more than what they’re anticipating... Young girls, for instance, are now used to games that are made just for them – and have started thinking they want something better.

Imagine Babies, anyone? Anyone?

Casuals Demanding More [CasualGaming]

Rockstar's Houser - Fuck Casual Gaming

Apparently the post Grand Theft Auto IV release has the bravado reaching all-new levels over at Rockstar. In an interview with New York Magazine, Rockstar VP and GTA IV co-writer Dan Houser had some decidedly negative things to say about the industry's shift towards casual gaming.

Yeah, fuck all this stuff about casual gaming. I think people still want games that are groundbreaking...We're hopefully going to prove that there's also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies.

Rockstar Games' Dan Houser on Grand Theft Auto IV and Digitally Degentrifying New York [New York Magazine via Eurogamer]
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Amazing Core Gamer Stuff Pooh-Poohed By Focus Groups

The concept was simple: A virtual dollhouse. Will Wright was coming off of SimAnt, and he was looking to do more. Wright at his team at Maxis began working on what would become The Sims, a game that play-tested so poorly that there were doubts it would be released. The game was and of course went on to spawn two sequels and countless expansions, creating a hundred million selling franchise in the process. It's must be very satisfying to be part of The Sims casual gaming juggernaut! Some people play The Sims and only The Sims. While the game's studio head Rod Humble says the best thing about working on The Sims is the "total freedom," he does offer us insight:

State Employees Demand Games on Their Work PCs

Montana state employees raised a stink recently when the new computers sent to the Child Support Enforcement Division in the Department of Public Health and Human Services offices arrived without games like solitaire, hearts and minesweeper.

Some employees complained that they should have the games, which were on their old computers, on the new PCs so the state installed them on all of the computers.

But after an anonymous tipster wrote to complain to the local newspaper that people really shouldn't be spending their time casual gaming, the state decided to remove games from all of it's more than 3,000 PCs.

Oh come on, why should the Child Support and Public Health folks have to work any harder than the DMV people? What they really should do is install World of Warcraft on all the PCs... and then load the computer's up with liquid cooling and neon tubing. I hear that's all the rage in Texas government.

Games on state computers stirs flap [Missoulian]

Casual Gaming Revealed

It's easy to see that casual gaming is becoming mighty popular with the general populous. Thanks to new statistics from media research firm Interpret, there's now some idea of how all these casual gamers tick.
Using its Gameasure service, Interpret rooted out that the average time players engage with casual games has jumped since last year from four hours per week to just over five hours. Interpret also found that 85 per cent of casual gamers would prefer to play free, ad-supported games rather than games that require them to pay for downloads. The biggest discovery, though, was that the casual gaming market is ready for just about anything: casual gamers are 22 per cent more likely to seek out information about new products, and 36 per cent more likely to switch to a new product, just for the sake of change. Although I don't think this should be too surprising. Casual games are generally much less complex than more major games, so I imagine the ability to get bored of simple and repetitive actions is much more likely. Heck, shouldn't this number be higher?

New Stats Show Casual Explosion [Next-Gen]

EA Aiming For The Casual Sports Gamer

Peter Moore gets it. When Facebreaker was announced, Fahey and I both reacted with glee—EA was taking a much need step back from simulation, offering sports games again at last. Now Moore explains that games like Facebreaker are just part of a newly focused EA:

There will be more announcements that will be, if you will, licensed intellectual property that will be looking at the more casual consumer that we see as a bigger force in the business...we think there's a different type of consumer that...doesn't want the authentic simulation game that we currently offer.

Moore: We must do better on Wii and DS [MCV]

The last time I played Risk was New Year's Eve, 1999, which I spent with some folks from the local Renaissance Faire, figuring if the world were catapulted back into the Dark Ages, they would be the people to hang with. It went like many Risk games do...two hours of engrossing play followed by people wandering away from the table for various reasons, eventually forgetting we were playing. The game is just too damn long, and manufacturer Hasbro knows this. Their answer to the problem? Risk: Black Ops. It's the Risk you've come to know and love in short bursts, redesigned with a sleek and sexy new look, a new resource system that rewards possession of territorial capitols, and the big change - an objective system. Objectives are tasks such as "Control Europe" that reward a player for completing them. The game starts with four major and four minor objectives from a pool of twelve, and completing any three is considered a win. This changes the face of the game completely!

Women's Murder Club Goes Casual

James Patterson's best-selling book series Women's Murder Club is going interactive! Hot on the heels of the ABC television series based on the series, Patterson is teaming up with Gabriel Knight creator Jane Jensen, whose casual development company Oberon Media will be creating what they hope to be a series of casual murder mystery games. By coupling the female-dominated casual gaming market with the equally female-dominated book buying market, Patterson hopes to have a huge success on his hands.

So I think the market for what we're doing — games that are more sensitive and are centered on character, not shooting — will be monstrous. I have a huge audience ... which is something ABC discovered when 'Women's Murder Club' debuted and it was their biggest premiere on a Friday night in four years."

Patterson pursues video game murders most casual [The Hollywood Reporter]

GameStop Targetting Casual Gamers Hardcore In 2008

It has been made readily apparent by GameStop COO Daniel DeMatteo that retailer GameStop considers the burgeoning "casual" gaming market one of the bigger opportunities for growth. But what are they planning to do about the broad customer base buying the Wii and Nintendo DS? Well, we're still not quite sure what management is up to, but analyst Colin Sebastian says the company is "making progress" in its efforts. Whether that means droning on at the start of each phone call "Thank you for calling EBgames, where you can trade in your copy of Wii Play toward Wii Fit" or something more severe we don't know, but GameStop certainly has its work cut out for it.

Maybe management could consider laying off on the aggravating tactics ingrained into current GameStop clerks who are forced to shill surcharges of questionable value. The phrase "merchandising to a broader consumer audience" could be interpreted as just about anything, but the company would probably be wise to consider making the experience a bit less sour. Any other suggestions?

GameStop Gets Casual in '08 [Next-Gen]

Hasbro, the makers of the word game Scrabble, have asked Facebook to remove its popular online take on the game, Scrabulous because of copyright infringement.

"Letters have been sent to Facebook in the United States regarding the Scrabulous application," said a Mattel spokeswoman in Britain.

"Mattel values its intellectual property and actively protects its brands and trademarks.

"As Mattel owns the rights to the Scrabble trademark outside the United States and Canada, we are currently reviewing our position regarding other countries."

Hmm, while it may seem silly, I believe Scrabble is an entirely original game, as in it's not one of these throw-offs of games created in the middle ages or ancient china. I wonder if they makers of Scrabulous can get away with a name change only?

Facebook Asked to Remove 'Scrabulous' [NYT]

"After working on top-rated shooters for years, we were ready to work in a smaller company and make smaller games. We started to notice how people with our background were making top hits in the casual games industry," explains Brian Meidell, co-owner of the Copenhagen based company, The Game Equation. "We realized that the high end of the casual games industry was within our reach, and that the shorter product cycles and smaller company setting was exactly what we wanted.

The Sims Get More Casual

"We designed these pick-up-and-play games to be fun and entertaining, while still presenting depth in gameplay, long-term enjoyment and great value," said Rod Humble, Head of The Sims Studio. "Since The Sims Carnival SnapCity and The Sims Carnival Bumper Blast are available for digital download, the holiday shopper can avoid long lines and still share some fun with everyone on their list."

While PopCap games aren't my personal vice (I much prefer snorting coke off pleather escort boots), there's no question that they are a force in the PC/Mac casual gaming market. Now as part of a holiday sale, they've dropped the prices on their games by 50% until January 3rd. A kind of neat option they're offering is an emailable gift certificate. And if you can get over the looking like a thoughtless jerk to your spouse part, the certificate allows the recipient to choose from all 48 of PopCap's games with the option to play demos before purchase. I'd order one up for my mom, but since I gave her Puzzle Quest last Christmas her life has never been the same.

PopCap [via opposablethumbs]

Analysts Claim That Video Board Games Are The Next Big Thing

Advanced AI? It's alright. More polygons than your eyes can discern? Kinda neat. Board games on your TV? Now you're talking!

A simExchange analyst Jesse Divnich thinks the board games made video games are the next big thing, telling Gamasutra that:

For emerging genres, we will likely see an influx of "board game" type titles over the next few years. I expect Scene It? on the Xbox 360 to have moderate success.

Facebook Games Are Popular, Much Like Facebook

EA Not Worried About Casual Game Reviews

I get less concerned about game reviews because the casual gamers don't read any of those things...They're not swayed by a low score on IGN or a low score out of one of these gaming sites.