Casual Connect

While 2010 will be remembered as the year that Facebook established itself as a legitimate gaming platform, the future will not be beholden to one distribution channel, one business model, or one type of game. Looking ahead, game companies will adopt a global mindset – achieving success demands it. New hurdles will emerge, such as [...]

The future is rushing at us faster than ever. PC Games move back into the browser as Facebook keeps growing, Android & iPhone blasts the smartphone market wide-open, iPad surprises everyone by being desired & useful, radical new user input devices get everyone off the couch, normal people are spending millions on “virtual goods”, “Gamification” [...]

How did the once ultra-conservative publishing giant Electronic Arts find itself at the forefront of free-to-play online game with titles like Battlefield Heroes, Lord of Ultima, Fifa Online and Need For Speed World? What is it like to create revolutionary titles like that from within a big organization, rather than in a small-nimble startup? In [...]

The regional social networks in Eastern Europe have grown explosively over the past 12-18 months, dramatically widening the playing field for micro-transaction monetized online games. Companies like Odnoklassniki, Vkontakte, andMmail.ru have taken the distribution potential of the social graph and Facebook-like platform services to the Russian audience, and what was once the exclusive province of [...]

As the digital landscape changes, and the pricing model for downloads becomes obscure, with diminishing profit margins for the developer, how can studios maximize revenue from their efforts more effectively and consistently? Many developers are exploring (and profiting from) platforms other than traditional downloads – online, iPhone, Wii, retail – these are some of the [...]

With all the excitement about the growth of casual games, we at Gogii wanted to take time and reflect on the growth we have see and what we foresee in the next two years. Online distribution (trial to purchase), Facebook, iOS/Android, console, retail, and license revenue all played a part and there were some surprises [...]

Germany is the strongest gaming market in Europe. Not only does Germany have the biggest player base, it is also dominating in terms of game developers. While everybody was rushing towards social games, most German developers stuck to their core business. Traditionally, browser games are the strongest German gaming genre, however, there is a lot [...]

Regional European social networks jumped into the social games arena in 2010 in order to capitalize on the revenue and retention growth these products provide. Facebook, too, grew in Europe but local social networks leveraged regionally-focused user experiences to gain large audiences and compete effectively against the global giant. Europe’s social network audiences are far [...]

Access to robust, relevant analytics about your game is fundamental to success in Social Games. Without this you will waste time and money, squander opportunities, and ultimately fail to find success. For most of us, this is clear. However – how does one GET access to such a system? What functionality should it contain? How [...]

Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices present an opportunity for casual developers to bring their existing games to entirely new audiences. But what exactly is involved in bringing your PC games to Apple’s iDevices? Is it a simple port or is there a lot more work involved? In this session, we will discuss Boomzap’s experience in [...]