CasualCharts: Is there a glut of content in the casual games space?

May 6th 2008 at 14:58 by James C. Smith

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Overview of Downloadable Casual Games 2008-04-04 through 2008-05-03

For this week I have excluded the MSN and Pogo top ten lists from my analysis since neither portal has updated their list in the last 30 days. I have added iWin to the analysis to give a more diverse look at the industry. That means we are looking at ‘Top 10’ data from AOL, Big Fish Games, iWin, Real Arcade, Reflexive, Shockwave, and Yahoo.

This week’s list of overall top 5 downloadable casual games includes several repeats from last week. Around the World in 80 Days (a match 3 game), Wesward II (sim), and Dream Chronicles (adventure) hold the top three spots and all appeared in last week’s overall top five. Ranking fourth overall is Build-a-lot 2. This sim is just getting started and is sure to be number one next week. Tied for fifth place are two click management games; Airport Mania: First Flight and Magic Farm were each in limited release previously and are just now on additional portals.

New Releases

Between these seven portals there were 16 new games released this week that had never before been on any of these seven portals. This is a more than the average of about 12 new games per week but not really anything out of the ordinary. With this many new games being released each and every week it is easy to see why many developers and publishers complain that there is a glut of content available to casual games players. The portals don’t seem to mind. They are more than happy to give the players as many choices as possible.

Big Fish Games launched seven games this week – as they do every week. They consistently launch a game a day. One of their new games this week, Mythic Mahjong, had previously been released on some of the other six portals included in this analysis. The other six games Big Fish Launched this week had never been launched on any of the other six portals. They are: Pets Fun House, OceaniX, TiQal, Plantastic, Beetle Bug 3, and Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express. Many of these games had previously been released on smaller portals or other distributions channels, but Big Fish was the first of these big seven portals to sell these games online. It is common for Big Fish to be the first to launch most new games since they aggressively pursue limited time exclusive distribution agreements and because they launch more new games per week than any other major portal. The later causes them to launch a diverse sampling of games, many of with never make it into their top ten list and never appear on any other portal.

iWin also launches a new game every day and often gets many lesser-known games that never make it onto other portals. This week three of their new releases (Hope Springs Eternal, Miss Popularity, and Jewel Island) were never before released on another one of these seven portals. They also launch Pet Shop Hop and The Lost Treasures of Alexandria which simultaneously debuted on Reflexive and Yahoo as well. iWin’s seventh new release this week was Bengal: Game of Gods, a ‘chain popper’ game that has been on many other portals for some time.

AOL doesn’t publish a New Release list for their downloadable casual games so it is very hard to track their release schedule. Escape The Museum is the only game that is new to their Top 10 list week and it was previously released on all the major portals. In general, AOL only launches games that have already proven to be top sellers on other portals.

Reflexive launched five games this week as they do every week. They consistently launch a game every weekday. This week two of their new releases were simultaneously launched on iWin and/or Yahoo. Two of their other new releases were previously released on other major portals. Reflexive had one unique release this week which was Ultratron. This is a shooter that is not likely to be released on many casual portals. A couple times per month Reflexive tends to launch a new shooters or other action game that appeals more to the core gamer or indie gamer rather than the stereo typical casual audience.

Real launched two games this week on Wednesday as they do almost every Wednesday. Occasionally they will launch three games rather than two but it is always on Wednesday. With only two new games per week, Real still manages to get many unique games that no other portal has. This week they were the first to launch Clue Classic. They also launched Build-a-lot 2 as did three other portals who were all beaten to the punch by Big Fish who had a 21-day exclusive in this mega hit game.

Shockwave launched three new games this week on Tuesday. Shockwave always releases about three to five games on Tuesday. This week Fabulous Foods Jigsaws was the only unique game released on Shockwave. Their other two new releases were previously released on other major portals. It is fairly rare for Shockwave to take a risk on a new game and they usually stick to releasing games that are already hits on other portals or sequels to hits.

Yahoo is another portal that doesn’t make an easy to track list of their new leases. They slowly rotate new content into their list of featured games. Usually these are games that have already proven themselves. This week Sprill 2 was featured for the first time on Yahoo but this game was previously launched on many other portals. Yahoo did come on board early and feature Pet Shop Hop which was simultaneously lunched this week on Yahoo, Reflexive and iWin.

Check back next week to see at least another dozen games launched and only a couple of them making a big mark in the top ten lists.