Casual Games Muscling in on Traditional TV Time news from 1UP.com Annotated
Casual Games Muscling in on Traditional TV Time
Study shows your mom likes Bejeweled more than Survivor.
By Mark Whiting, 08/18/2006
Remember RealNetworks? Well, for some reason they've recently become curious as to why people aren't watching Extreme Home Makeover anymore.
The culprit? Casual games.
The study, conducted by by Harris Interactive, sought to suss out the viewing habits of the American household. Once the numbers were in, executives were shocked... shocked... to find that the boob tube just isn't pulling in the eyeballs like it used to.
The short answer is that more and more American adults now prefer to waste their time playing Bejeweled than waste it watching CSI. How many, exactly? Answer: a "substantial minority" -- 31 percent.
"Watching movies at home" is apparently a slightly more compelling activity compared to television -- only 21% of the population prefers Zuma over a DVD. Actually going to a theatre? -- the big loser, with 35% of you preferring a quiet evening with PopCap instead.
Real's big discovery however was the significant spike in casual gaming in a very traditionally 'un-gamer' demographic... older women.
The numbers for the "women over 40" category clearly illustrate a dramatic ascendency in casual gaming nationwide. Nearly half of mothers in America (49%) prefer a quiet night with TextTwist to a wild night with Snakes on a Plane. Numbers are similarly huge for TV and DVD rejection: 37 and 32 percent, respectively.
This is news? Obviously they haven't met my mother-in-law -- the Zuma Champeen.
Unsurprisingly, all the fuss boils down to advertising dollars. "Advergames" i.e. games which contain "strongly branded" content -- are a big thumbs-down from players across the board. Throwing a banner or two in between level loads? Still apparently OK.
New SoGoPlay Label Courts Casual Market news from 1UP.com Annotated
So says Lou Fawcett, the recently-appointed head of SoGoPlay: SCi Interactive's newly-formed "casual games" label -- born from the recent acquisition of casual-gaming sister company Rockpool Games.
Fawcett made the comment during a larger speech at the Northern Exposure games conference, held last week in the United Kingdom. GamesIndustry.biz is covering the announcement of the new studio with a brace of articles centered on Eidos' aggressive new approach to the emergent casual games market.
The message seems to be clear: A savvy studio overlooks casual gamers at its own peril. For this reason, Eidos (a subcell of SCi Interactive) has charged SoGoPlay with an unusual mission: the promotion and marketing of casual games with intensity equal to the big name AAA titles of modern hardcore-dom. Says Fawcett: "We're aiming to establish SoGoPlay as THE flagship casual games brand."
EA Jumps on Casual Games Bandwagon news from 1UP.com Annotated
EA Jumps on Casual Games Bandwagon
New division to focus entirely on pick up 'n play.
By Mark Whiting, 06/06/2007
Say what you like about casual games; your derision won't change the fact that investments in cellphone, handheld and Xbox Live Arcade-style downloads are currently paying out like one-armed bandits for the big developers.
Exhibit A came a few weeks ago with the announcement of SCi Interactive's SoGoPlay "casual games only" development label. Today, further evidence comes in the form of a another triple-A challenger deciding to step into the ring of "hardcore" casual games development. The publisher: Electronic Arts. Their newly formed label: EA Casual Entertainment.
The new company will be headed up by former Activision exec. Kathy Vrabeck, who will take the helm as President. "All over the world", she says, "consumers are playing games that don't require hours of intense concentration. Whether it will be playing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the Wii with the family or downloading Madden NFL 08 on a phone, quick-to-the-fun games are bringing new players and new demographics to interactive entertainment."
We wrote to EA to see if they were interested in explaining how the EA Casual brand intends to differentiate itself from competitors like SoGoPlay.
"EA Casual Entertainment is a new group dedicated to the global and rapidly growing market for easy access games on all platforms. The inspiration for the creation of the division is the recognition that many consumers want to play games that don't require hours of commitment, intense concentration and deep skills. EA has the talent, the ideas and the franchises to compete in this genre. This division is modeled after The Sims -- with studios and publishing working side-by-side on a broad array of easy-access games for all platforms."
EA told 1UP that EA Casual will leverage the success of their "Pogo" casual gaming brand as a means to attract and retain fans. Pogo (according to EA, at least) is the "stickiest site on the Internet," with 18 million people playing every month, and 1.5 million paid subscribers.
The last few years have seen an incredible rise in the visibility and significance of the casual gaming dollar in the overall business of video games. "Quick and easy fun" comes complete with a quick and easy development price tag -- one that conveniently sidesteps the inherent risks associated with costly next-gen development. More and more, the big publishers are regarding the popularity of cellphone, download and internet-based games as a no-brainer low-risk, high-return business model.
By way of example, last January saw casual gaming studio Mumbo Jumbo expand to a size large enough to flat-out purchase Relic Entertainment (the guys behind SiN). With the growing ubiquity of Wii and popularity of download services like Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, expect to see this trend continue. Each copy of Catan sold moves that almighty development dollar further and further away from a business model based on servicing a notoriously fickle "hardcore" demographic.
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