The Rise of Casual Gaming — TWL Forum Archive

2008-04-13 14:06

The Rise of Casual Gaming

When the Atari 2600 was king, it often found itself as the center point of the family room. Parents would face off against their children in rounds of Asteroids, Pac-Man, Pong, and countless others. These were home gaming's toddler years. Everything was so incredibly simple and accessible that even grandparents who loathed the arcade could sit at home enjoying a relaxing round of Pitfall before they slipped off to bed for the night.

But things were not meant to stay this way. The Atari 2600 gave birth to countless clones, leading eventually to 8-bit gaming and the Nintendo Entertainment System. While gaming had obviously evolved technologically with its release, the NES still had a huge library of insanely addictive and simple titles. This was the time when Super Mario Brothers ruled above all in the home gaming arena. Of course, while millions were home playing their NES, the architects of the gaming industry were also working feverishly on more technological breakthroughs. 8-bit gaming gave birth to 16 bit. 16 bit evolved into 32 bit. 32 into 64. This endless cycle of graphical improvements and intriguing new gameplay styles continued until the gaming industry became known first and foremost as a teenager's wet dream. The simplistic era of 2D gaming slowly disappeared and out popped the third dimension. With this entirely new dimension came terms like 'learning curve' and 'axis sensitivity' and for many gamers things had simply grown too complicated. For a time, many former gamers fell out of love with their guilty pleasure. That is, until casual gaming made its huge resurgence.

Today the casual gaming sector of the video game industry has become a multi-billion dollar venture. In 2006, casual titles grossed approximately $52.7 million and in just one year that grew to more than $2 billion. So how have such simple titles come to gross such huge amounts of money? Well, it all began with a common card game. (Gamespot)

Back in 1990, Microsofts release of Windows 3.0 had just created a huge commotion in the computing world and among the countless changes to Windows 2.11 was the inclusion of a small program called Solitaire. The premise of the game was simple and well known prior to the game's release. All the player had to do was build four separate card suites starting with the Ace and moving up to the King and they would win. These addictive gameplay mechanics had users often finishing just one more game. Everyone from office employees to college students found themselves sneaking in rounds of Solitaire before getting back to work. Microsofts free pack-in with Windows 3.0 inadvertently took the gaming world by storm and continues to be popular to this day. (Wikipedia)

Two years after Solitaire had made its mark in gaming history, a new casual title was preparing to explode in the gaming world. In 1989 Nintendo was readying the U.S. release of the Game Boy. Bundled in with the handheld system was an addictive arcade puzzle game called Tetris. Much like Solitaire, Tetris also had a simple premise accessible to nearly everyone. Additionally, since the game was a pack-in title with an extremely successful console, it was guaranteed a humongous player-base. The Game Boy soon found its way into purses and backpacks everywhere. The Game Boy and Tetris helped make owning a video game console acceptable for people that would otherwise hate video games. It shortened bus rides, quieted children at the doctors office, and all the while maintained fantastic battery life. Additionally, the addictive arcade action of Tetris contained no extraneous violence or annoying sounds; only Russian folk music and a whole lot of fun, allowing it to appeal to entire families. (Wikipedia)

After Tetris, the evolution of casual gaming isnt quite as exact. With the emergence of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis, games like Columns¸ Tetris Attack, Yoshis Cookie, and Zoop became extremely popular. These games were often either reiterations of the classic Tetris formula or arcade games with simple gameplay mechanics that any player could grasp. Players found themselves matching colors and shapes to score points as the gameplay slowly grew more frenetic. And when personal computers became as widespread as game consoles, they too saw an explosion in casual games. Minesweeper, Snake, and Hearts are only a few of the popular computer games that many users found themselves addicted to.

Now casual games have become so finely tuned by big gaming companies that despite having more advanced graphics and gameplay mechanics, even the most technologically inept players can enjoy themselves. PopCap Games continues to churn out hit after hit, starting with their first title Bejeweled and moving all the way up to their more recent hit Peggle. PopCaps games are all available through multiple retail channels. Gamers can purchase PopCap titles in brick and mortar stores, digitally through services like Steam, or they can just download free trials to see if the game is right for them. Electronic Arts has also attempted to cash in on the casual gaming craze with its 2001 acquisition of Pogo.com. The website provides free ad-based online games to millions of players to compete in and even have the opportunity to win cash prizes. For the more devoted gamers, a subscription based service called Club Pogo is offered, allowing players to eliminate annoying ads and utilize exclusive features.

These multiple distribution venues have proved to be quite beneficial to both the gaming public and game developers. More recent experiments with game distribution have lead developers to try simply giving games away to gamers. EA has dubbed this new distribution trend Play 4 Free and will first test it out with their upcoming casual shooter Battlefield Heroes. The game will be available to download online for absolutely no cost. Instead, EA will collect revenue from advertisements placed on the games menu and from micro transactions that allow players to buy accessories to customize their characters. In addition to being free, EA has also included a unique matchmaking service that will make the game accessible to both hardcore gamers and casual gamers. (Battlefield Heroes)

EA is not the only big name game company to notice the humongous popularity of casual games. Nintendo too saw the potential in reaching out to a player-base that other gaming companies ignored. With the release of the Nintendo Wii, its attractive $250.00 price point, and its innovative motion sensitive controls, video games no longer require multiple button presses or complicated looking controllers. Instead, simple hand gestures translate into actions on the screen. This has caused the console to become extremely popular with nearly every age demographic. Everyone from two year olds to eighty-two year olds can have their fix of virtual bowling or baseball. And for Nintendo, this new approach to gaming has definitely paid off. Despite having inferior hardware specifications, the Nintendo Wii has sold phenomenally and has put Nintendo back in direct competition with Microsoft and Sony.

With the potential rise of freely available casual games coupled with gamers intense fascination with these short gaming fixes, casual gaming will undoubtedly continue to grow at an amazing pace. The success of independent casual games like Audiosurf as well as the success of games created by large developers like EA, shows that the casual gaming industry rewards both creative new concepts and tried and true gaming formulas. And with such a variety of games available at such low prices, most gamers will enjoy reaping the rewards of the casual gaming boom.

Graphics by: LadyRed
Copy Editor: Tychon

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