The rise of the casual gaming empire
By Andrew Cui
The casual gaming phenomenon is taking over app markets around the world, with new games popping up every day, some even
invading consoles! So what is a casual game and why are they so popular? Self-confessed casual gamer Andrew Cui investigates.
Joe is a casual gamer, and owns a Samsung Galaxy S4. Every he plays on his Every night he uses his phone to do ‘important’ things like check up with his friends on Facebook, watch videos on YouTube, and most importantly to him, get his daily reward in his games of the likes of Jetpack
Joyride and Temple Run.
He’s not alone. Millions of people around the world are playing them as well, and these games are so popular, they were pulling in about $3 billion in 2009 alone (the sales this year are going up fast as I type), and even the free ones are pulling in the big bucks, usually with in-game purchases and ads. Even big name companies like Lucasarts™ and Disney™ are jumping in th act with games like Angry Birds Star Wars (with Rovio, maker of Angry Birds) and Temple Run: Oz the Great and Powerful (with Imangi Studios, maker of TempleRun). Examples of these games include the likes of Flappy Bird, Angry Birds, Plants vs Zombies and 2048, the middle 2 being popular enough to have spin-offs.
Casual games are believed to have started to appear near the start of the age of smartphones, but they more likely date back to the glory days of Windows XP (which has recently ended support), in 2005-7, in the form of browser games, supplied by the likes of Miniclip, which is still popular even today. Some of the games were casual games, but the world never really noticed them. Then came smartphones, phones with a difference: they weren’t just a device for calling and texting anymore. No, they were more than that. They were a multimedia device, an entertainment system, a personal assistant, and lots more rolled into one. One of those things was a handheld gaming console, but where were those games? That’s where games came in, especially casual games (including Angry Birds, which released exclusively to iOS in 2009), which rose to fame quickly. Even Miniclip itself joined in with the action, releasing some of its most popular games as apps.
The reason why these games are so popular is probably because of the addictiveness, coming from certain in-game elements (e.g. having to get to a certain score to get a reward, endless tracks, daily rewards, the list goes on) which trigger the urge to go on so to feel satisfied with the action. This can be amplified by the social platform in the form of leaderboards and tournaments. Other factors being that they are cheap (usually costing around 99c, or even being free) and entertaining (storylines are not too complex, but still fun, though some may have higher expectations when it comes to plots).
However they were not without criticism. Hard-core gamers (gamers who play games which are basically more complex and advanced than casual games) damned the majority of these games for not being ground-breaking, which they probably say is one of the key factors of a hard-core game. Other criticism includes not being entertaining or original, or being mediocre compared to hard-core games, or not having any meaning at all. Recently some games have been found to leak data, sparking privacy fears, most likely about the NSA. Some are even saying that casual games and their home platform (mobile devices) are so popular, makers of consoles and high-end games like Nintendo will go bankrupt!
Even with this much criticism, most of the casual gamers are not backing down. “Games don’t have to ground-breaking to be good” said one such person on an online forum. Personally I believe that some casual games have a little something special (for example simplicity, controls flowing as you proceed) that may make them rise over hard-core games.
Now compared to Hard-core games, casual games are a lot less complex in many ways, for example: the storyline may not be so big, the controls may be much simpler and the interface may not be so advanced. Most obviously the style of play may not be advanced either.
Like them or hate them, casual games are not disappearing anytime soon Currently they are at the top of the app charts, with new and sensational games coming up every year though few may get much attention, and even those that may get the attention may lose the interest of millions fast. Notably the minimalist puzzle game ‘Blek’ is in the top 5 paid apps at the App Store at the time of writing. Sometimes the highest rating games may be pulled from the app stores, either by the publisher or the app store itself, the former being the case of the #1 free game Flappy Bird, whose developer claimed that it ruined his life. The lucky ones, like Angry Birds, are even their own franchise, with toys, shows and even a movie branded to their name.
So casual games are becoming more popular thanks to a variety of factors, with some impressing even the highest ranking mobile gaming magazines. Pulling in both criticisms from other gamers and big money, they may as well be dominating everything, maybe even more than hard-core games themselves, even though they themselves have so much popularity they have their own memorabilia as well. And that about sums this whole thing up.
Now moving back to Joe, he just finished playing his daily session of Plants vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time. He enjoyed the Piñata Party Birthday daily event, and managed to win awesome prizes for future use, like free power-up uses. Now he sits back and relaxes as he turns on the TV for his 6 o’ clock news shot. But was there any real meaning to this, or he just stuck in a routine he MUST do? You decide.
The casual gaming phenomenon is taking over app markets around the world, with new games popping up every day, some even
invading consoles! So what is a casual game and why are they so popular? Self-confessed casual gamer Andrew Cui investigates.
Joe is a casual gamer, and owns a Samsung Galaxy S4. Every he plays on his Every night he uses his phone to do ‘important’ things like check up with his friends on Facebook, watch videos on YouTube, and most importantly to him, get his daily reward in his games of the likes of Jetpack
Joyride and Temple Run.
He’s not alone. Millions of people around the world are playing them as well, and these games are so popular, they were pulling in about $3 billion in 2009 alone (the sales this year are going up fast as I type), and even the free ones are pulling in the big bucks, usually with in-game purchases and ads. Even big name companies like Lucasarts™ and Disney™ are jumping in th act with games like Angry Birds Star Wars (with Rovio, maker of Angry Birds) and Temple Run: Oz the Great and Powerful (with Imangi Studios, maker of TempleRun). Examples of these games include the likes of Flappy Bird, Angry Birds, Plants vs Zombies and 2048, the middle 2 being popular enough to have spin-offs.
Casual games are believed to have started to appear near the start of the age of smartphones, but they more likely date back to the glory days of Windows XP (which has recently ended support), in 2005-7, in the form of browser games, supplied by the likes of Miniclip, which is still popular even today. Some of the games were casual games, but the world never really noticed them. Then came smartphones, phones with a difference: they weren’t just a device for calling and texting anymore. No, they were more than that. They were a multimedia device, an entertainment system, a personal assistant, and lots more rolled into one. One of those things was a handheld gaming console, but where were those games? That’s where games came in, especially casual games (including Angry Birds, which released exclusively to iOS in 2009), which rose to fame quickly. Even Miniclip itself joined in with the action, releasing some of its most popular games as apps.
The reason why these games are so popular is probably because of the addictiveness, coming from certain in-game elements (e.g. having to get to a certain score to get a reward, endless tracks, daily rewards, the list goes on) which trigger the urge to go on so to feel satisfied with the action. This can be amplified by the social platform in the form of leaderboards and tournaments. Other factors being that they are cheap (usually costing around 99c, or even being free) and entertaining (storylines are not too complex, but still fun, though some may have higher expectations when it comes to plots).
However they were not without criticism. Hard-core gamers (gamers who play games which are basically more complex and advanced than casual games) damned the majority of these games for not being ground-breaking, which they probably say is one of the key factors of a hard-core game. Other criticism includes not being entertaining or original, or being mediocre compared to hard-core games, or not having any meaning at all. Recently some games have been found to leak data, sparking privacy fears, most likely about the NSA. Some are even saying that casual games and their home platform (mobile devices) are so popular, makers of consoles and high-end games like Nintendo will go bankrupt!
Even with this much criticism, most of the casual gamers are not backing down. “Games don’t have to ground-breaking to be good” said one such person on an online forum. Personally I believe that some casual games have a little something special (for example simplicity, controls flowing as you proceed) that may make them rise over hard-core games.
Now compared to Hard-core games, casual games are a lot less complex in many ways, for example: the storyline may not be so big, the controls may be much simpler and the interface may not be so advanced. Most obviously the style of play may not be advanced either.
Like them or hate them, casual games are not disappearing anytime soon Currently they are at the top of the app charts, with new and sensational games coming up every year though few may get much attention, and even those that may get the attention may lose the interest of millions fast. Notably the minimalist puzzle game ‘Blek’ is in the top 5 paid apps at the App Store at the time of writing. Sometimes the highest rating games may be pulled from the app stores, either by the publisher or the app store itself, the former being the case of the #1 free game Flappy Bird, whose developer claimed that it ruined his life. The lucky ones, like Angry Birds, are even their own franchise, with toys, shows and even a movie branded to their name.
So casual games are becoming more popular thanks to a variety of factors, with some impressing even the highest ranking mobile gaming magazines. Pulling in both criticisms from other gamers and big money, they may as well be dominating everything, maybe even more than hard-core games themselves, even though they themselves have so much popularity they have their own memorabilia as well. And that about sums this whole thing up.
Now moving back to Joe, he just finished playing his daily session of Plants vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time. He enjoyed the Piñata Party Birthday daily event, and managed to win awesome prizes for future use, like free power-up uses. Now he sits back and relaxes as he turns on the TV for his 6 o’ clock news shot. But was there any real meaning to this, or he just stuck in a routine he MUST do? You decide.