Casual games get serious

(continued from previous page)

Casual games are also starting to make an impact in the console arena. Though small downloadable games aren't the main incentive for most people to spend hundreds of dollars on an Xbox 360, Microsoft is touting them as a significant bonus to its system.

Nintendo, too, has talked about tapping its stable of classic titles to help boost interest in its forthcoming Wii console.

Special coverage
Game on at E3 2006

Enthusiasts descend on L.A.
for massive industry blowout.

And now, with advertising making a big-time comeback, casual games are taking on growing importance.

Traditional games appeal to a very lucrative segment for advertisers--young men--but a lot of advertisers want to reach other segments of the population. Most importantly, casual games allow advertisers to use the medium to reach women.

For example, two thirds of those playing at MSN Games are female, with RealNetworks drawing upwards of 60 percent women.

"People that don't even think of themselves as gamers are playing these games," Schutzler said.

Of course, there are also plenty of men who aren't into games. Indeed, while the current market for casual games has tended to draw more women, there are efforts to draw in more men as well.

For example, deodorant maker Degree antiperspirant has sponsored a free online Texas hold 'em game on MSN Games. In addition to the expected cadre of on-screen ads, the Degree for Men logo is prominently displayed on the game table and card-backs, as well as on-screen ads.

Microsoft has had a significant casual-games business for at least a decade, following its 1996 purchase of Zone.com. In some ways, the company's involvement in the realm reaches back even further, says Chris Early, studio manager for Microsoft's casual-games unit, noting that the solitaire game built into Windows is really the forerunner of casual computer gaming.

"It's the most started app in the world," Early said.

But with their newfound aim at the advertising business, casual games have become far more strategic. Casual games are also likely to figure prominently in the Live Anywhere strategy announced Tuesday by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

Gates touted a vision in which games can be started on a PC or Xbox and then picked up on a mobile phone. For now, though, such play would only be possible with casual games.

"Frankly, I don't want to play 'Shadowrun' on my phone," Early said.

One of the challenges for all types of in-game advertising is figuring out the balance of where, and how many, ads to include, Schutzler said. "You can't put too much advertising in the game without destroying the game."

One of the nice things about casual games, he said, is they tend to have natural breaks, like television shows, where commercials are less disruptive than say, halting a live-action game.

With action games, much of the focus is on product placement. Hence, Microsoft's decision earlier this month to buy Massive, a small company whose engine places advertising right in the middle of video games, often on billboards.

But while such impressions are important, casual games offer opportunities for more distinctive brand advertising. In addition to TV-style commercials and banner ads, the cost of such games is low enough to allow sponsors to offer free games that are tinged with their branding throughout. Tyson Foods, for example, offered a version of "Bejeweled" in which the game's standard jewel icons were replaced with poultry-themed graphics.

Casual games are another way to reach men who aren't hard-core gamers, Early said. Microsoft this week announced that it had struck deals with several game makers of yesteryear to bring titles like "Root Beer Tapper," "Paperboy" and "Pac-Man" onto the Xbox 360.

Older arcade games feature many of the same characteristics of other casual games--easy to play for a short time and familiar, with low processing needs. "It's easy to hop in to 'Frogger,'" Early said, groaning at his unintended pun.

It appears, Early said, that even the hard-core gamers are spending significant time playing some of the casual games available through the Xbox 360's Live Arcade.

"I think that's been as big a surprise as anything else," Early said.

[sudokuscore]

very heartening to read this as I'm prek-6 dad and a casual game developer

For me, it is a very heartening to read this artcle for two reasons.
Reason number one being I'm a dad of two preK-6 kids. I never liked all these video games to which small kids gets hooked hours together at a very young age. These games in my opinion doesn't add any value or help the kids in their formative years unlike puzzles and logical games which you are calling casual games.

Second reason why this article is heartening is this: Due to reason number one and since I'm a web developer I have started creating puzzles and logical games online for kids of my age as well as adults when I get free time, starting with simple sudoku games and my own variations to it and then alphabet games for toddlers . I'm not sure if I can post the site name here at cnet site (TOS??). It is www.sudokuscore.com .
So if the casual games sector is reviving it is good news for me the dad and developer
Hey all the parents unite and support the casual games industry!!

[Stalin Hornsby]

Getting out of second gear with the likes of Halo puts patches on my linen.

No loss here. I can't seem to find my way in these adventure video games,without a user posting game logic as in the days of old and Everquest.