• New York Sun, Friday, February 2, 2007 10:45 AM

Video games have become an advertising medium. Casual games, in particular, have contributed greatly to the business's steady march into the mainstream. Panelists at a recent discussion on the booming game business agreed that the future of the casual genre belongs to shorter, easier to play games that appeal to a wider audience.

"I think it's happening because of a change in demographics," said Wade Tinney of the International Game Developers Association. "There are still kids who can play for hours, but there are also older people, like himself, who grew up on games and don't have that kind of time. "And I'm the one with the credit card and the income," he said.

Indeed, online is the future of video games--not the consoles gamers are forced to buy today--especially as Internet speeds become faster. That future opens up new doors in the form of online advertising, the purchase of software add-ons and monthly subscriptions for massively multiplayer online worlds, like World of Warcraft. That means publishers face a similar predicament to traditional media companies: How to embrace the future while sustaining the present success of the old retail model?

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