'Next casual hit as likely to come from Newcastle as downtown New York'

Currently, the majority of big PC casual games hits are masterminded by companies based in the US, and also Eastern Europe, but Jobling said UK studios were quickly learning the business.

Newcastle-based Eutechnyx is known in the industry for its racing games, but now is changing its business so it can challenge the growing number of casual games teams based in New York.

Explained Jobling: "The casual games market has revolutionised how traditional console developers are working. Eutechnyx has effectively split in half – one half working on next gen console games and the other working on an MMO targeted at the casual games market. I don’t think developers will drop everything they’re doing and jump headlong into the casual games market – but I do think you’re going to get this split that takes off within the casual games market."

He added that UK developers were learning the fastest from this:

"Someone is going to create a casual game that has 100 million subscribers and it’s just as likely to come from downtown Newcastle as it is from downtown New York."

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