CASUAL CONNECT EUROPE: Is innovation in the casual sector dead?

"I think it has gotten worse," suggested Carrella, when asked by panel host and Playrix VP of business development Sean Elliot if the rule that in the casual sector 20 per cent of games make 80 per cent of the money still applied.

"It's more like 10/90," added Carrella. "The situation has really gotten worse, and the reason is that there's no more innovation across the casual sector. There are too many clone games, too many cookie cutter games and too many hidden object games."

While Carrella's comments raised the eyebrows of some of his fellow panel members in a session designed to look over the current state of the portal gaming market, he was not without support.

"In some ways I agree with Vincent," said Reflexive's Arcade producer Terri Hardie. "So many games are being made that the challenge for portals has become picking the right ones, and so many are still hidden object games."

However, Exent Technologies director of content Rick Marazzani argued that innovation in casual game development is far from reaching an evolutionary dead end.

"There's a massive opportunity to reinterpret some hardcore gaming classics like Civilization," said Marazzani, later adding "Handled right those games would make wonderful casual games. If you look through some catalogues of old games there are so many mechanics that could be suited to casual games. Taking those as inspiration, there's so much room for innovation."