Casual Game News

Legacy Games’ popular hidden object series for the PC The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes has recently made its way to the iPhone, and we have 10 copies to give away to celebrate!

RealGames has appointed two social networking veterans to its executive team, the company announced today. Jeff Revoy, formerly of Yahoo!, steps into the newly-created role of vice president of social games, while former Real VP of Engineering Wilf Russell has been promoted to chief technology officer.

Don’t worry, be happy this Friday since Gogii Games has just released its new strategy/simulation game, HappVille. Other downloads out now are Alice in Wonderland (HOG), Dream Day Wedding: Bella Italia (HOG), Treasure Seekers: Follow the Ghosts ($6.99 version), and Engineering (swap 3 puzzle).

Brand new free games on Facebook this week are Poker Blitz by Zynga and Hotel City by Playfish. Click Find Games and go to our New Releases page for up to the minute updates on all brand new games to play.

And yes…our bee still has no name, there were too many good ideas, I’ll pick one soon!

Playfish fans have been eagerly anticipating the release of Hotel City since word of the game first surfaced earlier this week. The new hotel management game from the studio behind such hits as Restaurant City and Pet Society is now available for play on Facebook.

Trip Hawkins is worried about the future of traditional gaming. As a publisher of casual games, it may seem like an strange concern – but only if you don’t know Trip. Creating Electronic Arts back in 1982, Hawkins is generally considered one of the architects of the modern games industry. Since founding the development house Digital Chocolate in 2003, Trip’s focus has been on growing the casual games industry in the same way he did the traditional games industry. But now it’s grown, and Trip wonders if casual games might just be big enough to swallow traditional games whole.

The thought of handing a high tech device over to a 2 year old may seem downright horrifying to those without children, yet more and more parents are trying to get their little ones acclimatized to our largely tech-dependent world by having them embrace these gadgets early. There’s a vast selection of iPhone applications that cater to the toddler market, ranging from coloring books to interactive stories and games. Now Fisher-Price, one of the longest-lasting names in toddler toys, is looking to get in on the action.

If you think you have the skills necessary to dominate in Doodle Bomb, Bottle Rocket Apps has just announced a contest made especially for you. The ‘Blast For the Cash’ contest will be awarding more than $2,000 in cash prizes to players at the top of the Overall Scores leaderboard, as well as a few prizes for players that might not be talented enough to blast their way into a top position.

Zynga has recruited veteran Electronic Arts executive Steven Chiang to become the president of the company's game studios. A 17-year videogame industry veteran, Chiang was co-founder of Tiburon Entertainment, which was acquired by EA in 1998. Most recently he was the senior vice president and group general manager for EA Sports where he oversaw the Madden NFL football series.

Metrogames might be a small player when compared to companies like Zynga or Playfish, but their games Biotronic, Music Challenge, and Plock have all managed to maintain around 1 million monthly active users on Facebook – more than enough to put them on the map. Playdom seems to think so too, as they’ve awarded MetroGames $5 million in series A funding to expand development of its games as well as its Metrogames.com social gaming platform.

Small transactions have become a constant in the world of casual gaming. Whether it’s $6.99 for a new PC title, $5 for FarmVille cash, or 99 cents for an iPhone game, small purchases make up the bulk of this industry. With that in mind, PayPal has just announced a change in how they handle smaller transactions in an effort to encourage digital media producers to adopt the service.