At $2.25 Billion, There’s Nothing Casual About It
This industry rakes in $2.25 billion, and reaches out to over 200 million people every year, according to the Casual Games Association latest research, with a growth estimated at a whopping 20 percent according to GigaOm.
One interesting point is that this is the only sector of gaming that reflects an appropriate gender balance: The ratio of men to women is nearly even, at 48.3 percent to 51.7 percent, respectively, though 74 percent of people who pay to play casual games are women.
As VentureBeat mentions, even though the enthusiast gaming market at a staggering $20 billion, clearly outperforms casual gaming currently, but its growth is somewhat stagnant. Moreover it reaches out to a mere 20 million, which also speaks of the popularity and hence the potential of Casual gaming.
Casual games are smaller and cheaper to develop than blockbusters like Halo, but also less lucrative - a lot of them are also given away free. However, while the profits from casual games appear smaller, their low development costs and potentially high profit margins also provide a an opportunity for experimentation, faster turnaround time and even mistakes.
The revenue models employed by companies differ, PopCap, for instance, distributes Bejeweled for free on PCs, but sells the game on mobile phones. Others models include allowing free play on the website but charging for downloads, allowing lower levels for free, but charging for the higher levels once the player is hooked, charging for multi-player versions etc. Indiagames for instance charges for subscriptions, while Zapak is reportedly looking at in-game advertisements and advergaming contributing upto 50 per cent of the total revenues.
The next wave in casual gaming could very well be personalization in the games, which would perhaps be one of the better ways to encourage stickiness.
Filed under: Business, Digital culture, Ideas & Innovations
Hi,
This is the first time I’m visiting your blog. Nice concept. As far as the gaming industry is concerned, product placement advertising model seems to be raking in the moolah for a lot of companies, both local and international. It serves the purpose coz it doesn’t disturb the gamers while getting their attention in a nonchalant manner. I blogged about it in my site some time back. You can check it out if you want. http://www.cellphone-advertising.com/israel-mobile-operators-successful-ad-funded-mobile-gaming-service/
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