Online Worlds Roundtable #15, Part Two

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Written by BuckGB on September 5th, 2007

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Web 2.0 people are naturally gaga about Facebook's applications... and where's your widget or gadget strategy right now? Online, there's the tired commentary about real-money trades being good or evil. And will the Asian item-based model kick ass in the States... answer: already taking names.

When people talk about casual games, do they mean DS, web, mobile, or item-based ones that aren't MMORPGs. The only thing common across them all is budgets in the $100,000 to $5 million range vs. $30+ million for serious console or major MMORPG attempts.

However, I'd argue World of Warcraft, with nine million subscribers, severely distorts what casual means. There's no way to reconcile such a number with the traditional concept of mass market vs. hardcore. Blizzard's top-line revenue exceeds five percent of America's TV industry... one game.

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