Hasbro chases consumers into casual games market

Speaking to us at EA's recently London-based casual game showcase Michael Fuller, head of digital media & gaming, Europe at Hasbro, said that the alliance "brings together two powerhouses in their respective industries".

Although signed last year, the first games in the EA Casual-Hasbro deal have only recently been named - they include this year's releases Littlest Pet Shop and a new Monopoly console game, plus other still-to-be-announced titles.

"Hasbro has the deepest portfolio of games brands in the world, and Electronic Arts is the global leader on just about every platform they develop on," said Fuller.

"But there has been a big change in the population of games players in the past ten years from the average 25-year-old male playing a game to what I call the mass-market players on multimedia platforms - and that's everything from the internet to mobile games. So the demographic has really opened up.

"And when you start talking about that demographic you are actually talking about Hasbro's target customer - it's an audience that Hasbro knows. Our customers are now playing games on these different platforms - so we need to get our brand onto those platforms."

He added: "The great  thing about casual is that it goes across all ages. And with EA is that we're able to go across multiple groups of people."

The two companies have been closely working together "at all levels from development to marketing," he explained - which includes getting board game designers to collaborate with game developers.

There's even scope that Hasbro could, in turn, help EA get its game properties a footing in the toy industry.

He said: "It's one of the opportunities that we have built into our alliance - there are a lot of discussions about that right now but nothing is specific as yet."