Casual games, those easy-to-learn one person games that keep you occupied for anywhere between five minutes and several hours, have attracted big audiences, and providers like RealNetworks and
Electronic Arts are seeking out better ways to make money off a phenomenon many view as being here to stay. The challenge for them is monetizing that audience: do you make users pay for these games,
or do you make them watch ads. It can be a lucrative business if the right sales model is found, especially for game developers who can easily and cheaply modify them for multiple countries and
languages. For media player RealNetworks, casual games have quickly come to represent a fifth of revenues. One big challenge for those who would sell games online is that many are available for free
elsewhere. The same games can be found at multiple different gaming sites, so to make money, companies are trying out a number of ideas, from embedding advertising into free games, selling all-you-can
play memberships without ads, individual downloads as well as free trials with time limits. DFC Intelligence expects revenues from casual games to grow to $953 million this year, from $713 in 2005.
However, the firm points out that the success of casual games has come at the expense of video game revenues for some developers, like Electronic Arts.
Read the whole story at Associated Press »