It has been an exciting year for casual games—not only are more and more people playing, but casual games have become the subject of mainstream news articles and large media companies have become interested in the space with more fervor than ever. The buzz is not surprising, of course. Many following the industry have known for some time that more people play casual games than any other type of video game. Now in 2007, this fact has become widespread knowledge. In addition, the industry has started to attract new platforms, studios and publishers. What was once an industry centered around PC and online web games has grown over the past couple of years into emerging casual areas, such as the Xbox LIVE Arcade and the Wii.
Right now, the market signs are good for casual games. Luckily the industry has remained stable due in part to casual games being available on a wide range of platforms with the most successful business models encouraging high quality and innovative game content.
The connected casual games industry is a “multi billion dollar industry,” as outlined in the 2007 report—but what does that really mean? Ultimately, projections on the total industry size are of little use other than pleasant conversations with relatives. No matter the exact sizing or growth rate, the importance of casual games is unchanged—consumers love casual games and will continue to play casual games.
Which brings us to the true measure of the industry: the millions of people casual games reach with high quality entertaining products that enrich their lives.
This report is focused on presenting the inner workings of the casual games industry as a central place for key information with existing CGA educational materials cross referenced throughout the report. For the purpose of this report, primary emphasis is placed on the online and connected markets of PC, with secondary focus on Xbox LIVE and Mobile. Detailed workings of emerging Wii and PS3 casual console markets and handhelds will be addressed in later reports. Research data from the online casual games market has been collected directly from a variety of large casual game portals, publishers and developers by the Casual Games Association through Pearl Research and Screen Digest.
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