Yesterday, we looked at trends in casual gaming for 2008. Today, I’m offering my predictions for casual gaming in 2009.

When we’re not talking product management at Product Management Meets Pop Culture, we’re talking casual games. (Not a surprise, given my gig @Gamesville.)

Today, we’re looking at the top five trends in casual gaming in 2008…

I’m the senior product manager for Gamesville.com–the web’s first, best, and only place to compete in real-time, massively multiplayer game shows for free cash prizes–and today was a very special day for us.

A local man won big in our Magic 21 game show a few days ago, so we fired up the Gamesville Prize Patrol jeep today and drove down to Andover, MA, to present the real check (and a comically over-sized check) to the lucky winner, live and in person.

This editorial originally appeared at http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/008221.php

The Casual Games Da Vinci Code

By Christopher Cummings

In the Casual Gamer’s Bill of Rights I put forward last week, it was #6 — “The right to games that help me understand the world and my place in it” — that proved most controversial among my circle of friends and developers, so I wanted to spend a little time discussing it and getting to the core of the argument.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg once remarked that, “A lot of companies get grouped as social networking. Lots are dating sites, or media sites or sites for community. But our mission…

This editorial originally appeared at http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/008249.php

Casual Gamers Deserve a Bill Of Rights, Too

By Christopher Cummings

The company behind Galactic Civilizations, Stardock, recently posted a PC-specific Gamer’s Bill Of Rights. In their words, this document is “a series of guidelines we’re trying to introduce in an effort to get our industry to be a little more standardized in how we deal with our games.”

Some people see this Gamer’s Bill of Rights as a way to re-establish trust among players, publishers, developers and retailers. Others see it as impractical, wishful thinking, or too vague to be useful. Reading through its enumerated points, it’s…

This editorial originally appeared at http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/008398.php

Casual Games Are Recession-Proof

By Christopher Cummings

All year long, journalists, bloggers and various analysts have wondered, “Are video games recession-proof?” The consensus seems to be: Yes! No! Maybe! 

DFC analyst David Cole puts it best, noting that the fizzling economy doesn’t appear to be affecting game software sales. “Consumer spending on software is at record levels,” he says, “and the game business seems to actually benefit from a recession, because games are a relatively cheap form of home entertainment.”

If you go back to the Depression, obviously times were tough — even tougher than they are today — but people still…

This editorial originally appeared at http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/008304.php

Spore DRM Debacle May Help Stop Piracy

By Christopher Cummings

Over the weekend, dozens of reviewers bombarded Amazon.com with one-star reviews of EA’s Spore because of the game’s draconian DRM scheme, which limits consumers to three installations. And that was just the beginning of the bad press for Will Wright’s latest brain child.

How does Spore go from one of the most “eagerly anticipated” casual games of the year to the most pirated game of the year to the poster child for the death of PC gaming?

Search for virtually any casual game plus the words “keygen” or “crack,” and you’ll find dozens of…

This editorial originally appeared at http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/008092.php

Is Casual Gaming Dead Already?

By Christopher Cummings

Since the debut of the Nintendo Wii, journalists have claimed there’s gold in the hills of casual gaming. Now, the claim–or is it, shark?–appears to have been jumped.

Late last week, Forbes declared, “Casual Gold Bust”. Venture capitalists such as Sharon Wienbar have predicted that most players in the casual gaming market will not survive the deluge of titles flooding the marketplace. PlayFirst CEO Jack Welch sees “a lot of dead bodies on the side of the road in casual gaming” coming soon.

Contrast that with announcements such as Viacom’s investment…

This editorial originally appeared at http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/008130.php

The Casual Divide: How Hardcore Are You?

By Christopher Cummings

Rockstar Games cofounder Sam Houser stirred things up recently by claiming he didn’t understand the divide between “casual” games and “hardcore” games. No, the makers of the Grand Theft Auto series claim that the game is the thing.

“Good games will usually sell and be popular, bad games will struggle–of any type or genre or style,” Houser said. “But we still believe big, high-impact games will help the industry evolve and further surpass the movie industry as the next mass-market storytelling medium.”

That statement is highly debatable. Ico, Rez, Eternal…

This editorial originally appeared at http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/008173.php

Casual Games: Social By Nature

By Christopher Cummings

Even as more venture capitalists see us “on the verge of a casual games backlash,” members of the media are trumpeting the rise of so-called social games. (That would be, yes, “the new hotness.”) But what are social games? Are they single-player games with group chat stapled on? Or simply any Flash game uploaded to Facebook?

At the recent Social Gaming Summit, social games were defined as products that:

• Leverage traditional gameplay dynamics;
• Make interacting with, or competing against, your friends is a core piece of the game itself;
• Provide players have clear goals, something…