Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Businesses Entertainment Games

NYT on the Rise of Casual Games 16

Posted by Zonk from the my-mom-can-attest-to-this dept.
securitas writes "The New York Times' Michel Marriott reports on the rise and growing importance of casual games to the video game industry. Casual games are sold exclusively over the Internet, are downloaded to PCs from sites like Yahoo Games, Real Arcade and Shockwave.com, and are 'generally simple-to-play, short-duration games that are graphically unsophisticated'. Casual games will represent $250 million of the $8.4 billion in 2005 domestic United States sales according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The article cites Diner Dash, which publisher PlayFirst says has 'sold more than 50,000 copies and continued to sell about 1,000 a day' at $20 per game. The article says that this type of game '... is not found on the shelves of video game or consumer electronic stores. Nor is it sold on the DVD's that deliver interactive 3-D fantasies to millions of PlayStation 2 and Xbox game consoles...'"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

NYT on the Rise of Casual Games More

NYT on the Rise of Casual Games

Comments Filter:
  • I've read it before somewhere, that's for sure...

    Or rather, enough telling us how popular casual games are, how about a casual games section on the NYT? Of all the major newspapers on The Guardian have a dedicated games section [guardian.co.uk], but even they just spend most of their time either republishing press releases from i-play or blogging about how casual games are sure to be the next big thing.

    It's time for the casual games discussion to move on from just talk. I'm hoping that the Casual Games Conference [casualgame...erence.com] will

  • Bad term (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Pluvius ( 734915 ) <pluvius3@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Friday July 01, 2005 @04:26PM (#12964464) Journal
    The article says that this type of game '... is not found on the shelves of video game or consumer electronic stores. Nor is it sold on the DVD's that deliver interactive 3-D fantasies to millions of PlayStation 2 and Xbox game consoles...'

    In that case, they probably shouldn't use the term "casual games" to describe them. Casual games (which are, you know, games that tend to be played casually) include sports games and The Sims, which are certainly sold in stores and on DVDs.

    Rob
    • I donno. Just because the distribution is different than the mass market games, doesn't mean they aren't targeted at the average (ie casual) person. I'd call the Yahoo! games casual games, after all. The gender balance is either equal or in favor of women players, and the hardware investment is minimal. These are pick up and play games, not go out and buy 20 dollars worth of hardware games.

      This would be in contrast to say, Battlefield 2, a game that has most people asking the message boards "Does my video

  • Female Crowd (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Shadow Wrought ( 586631 ) <shadow.wrought@g ... minus herbivore> on Friday July 01, 2005 @04:29PM (#12964508) Homepage Journal
    Of the people I know who get into this simple easily played and dowloaded games, all of them are female. Now granted my universe is small compared to, say, the US as a whole; but I do wonder if the reason the game companies can't seem to court female followers is because they already have the games they are looking for.
  • Microsoft has realized the potential market here, and I think that it could be a "killer app" for XBox360 if they manage to implement it competently. Clearly they intend to leverage casual games and video chat on the Xbox 360 using XBL. Since XBL is (so far) uniquely well-adapted for this sort of thing, it gives them an early advantage in this field over other consoles.

    http://winsupersite.com/images/showcase/xbox360_g u iderev_06.jpg [winsupersite.com].

    This is, I think, what MS is really talking about when they play up t

    • Possible problem with this is, will anyone spend $300 on a machine that would do that, when a computer can do that and so much more?

      Perhaps tho, it could possibly be more of an incentive for parents to buy for their kids, but I don't think it will be a major selling point for it.

      But I know I'll probably download some of the games from the XBL service and play them.
      • No one in their right mind would buy a $300-400 console just to play games like Bejeweled and Diner Dash. However, you're right that it's a good incentive for kids to use. "Hey Mom, if you get me the 360, you can use it to play Diner Dash!" Same would apply for husbands convincing their wives, etc.

        It's not a major selling point (nor should it be IMHO), but it doesn't take that much work for MS to add it in, since they've already got a games site that distributes these casual games anyway (MSN Games).
    • Microsoft already has Xbox Live! Arcade [xbox.com], which allows you to download and purchase a lot of these games right on your Xbox. The Xbox 360 will additionally have Arcade built in. As far as them having the advantage over other consoles, I disagree. The Nintendo Revolution's main selling point is the downloading of additional games and content. In addition to this, there have been numerous talks from Nintendo to several independent developers about creating content more focused on gameplay than technology. And

    • For some reason the last part of the post was removed, which is important for context since it contradicts the article and shows that Microsoft is ahead of the curve on this vs. its competitors. The last part originally read:

      ... The article says that this type of game '... is not found on the shelves of video game or consumer electronic stores. Nor is it sold on the DVD's that deliver interactive 3-D fantasies to millions of PlayStation 2 and Xbox game consoles,' but Microsoft already has its Xbox Li [xbox.com]

Slashdot Top Deals

Say "twenty-three-skiddoo" to logout.

Close