I’m sure that in the minds of some, the industry’s recent widening and shift towards a broader content is regarded cynically and that the label ‘casual’ is akin to a dirty word – representative of cheaper, low-end games that have been sparked by the Nintendo Wii and DS and are sure to evaporate once we enter the next hardware cycle. They're wrong, though.

A hot topic which has dominated conversations amongst the casual set for some time has been games for social networks. And the rush of companies looking to own that area has been a very public affair.

So beginning a column about the recent launch of the 3G iPhone and its supporting App Store requires, I guess, some kind of accusation that if you don't know what I'm talking about you're living under a rock or some other dank place. But let's skip the preamble and get to the point: although populated with great content, I've been left a bit wary by the launch of the iPhone games despite starting out, last Friday, as an eager reporter thinking it might herald the next big thing.

Last week, after a particularly manic print deadline on my other magazine responsibility, Develop, had passed, I turned to the internet for a mental break. Specifically, I went straight to Kongregate and lost what must have been 90 minutes to the absent-minded post-deadline slump.

I spent a chunk of my free time last weekend playing through new Wii casual game Boom Blox - or, as it says in the press release, Steven Spielberg's Boom Blox. It's a great game, which deserves all the praise it's getting, but it highlights some embarrassing games industry truths.