Leipzig, Germany - "Relaxation" is not always the first word that comes to mind when it comes to video games. Yet that's precisely the goal of Let's Yoga! The meditation trainer from Konami for Nintendo's DS console is just one of many casual games set for release this fall. Casual gaming was in fact a major buzzword at the recent Games Convention trade fair in Leipzig, Germany, but it actually refers to a variety of different titles that all have one thing in common: They are primarily intended for people who wouldn't consider gaming their top hobby.
"We understand casual games as those with simple mechanisms. They are focused on pure playing enjoyment, with story and graphics not in foreground," says Olaf Wolter from the German Association of Interactive Entertainment Software (BIU) in Berlin. "The term is intended to describe what occasional players play," says Andre Horn, editor-in-chief of the Munich-based GamePro magazine.
There are two major styles, Horn says: The first are things like online card games or titles like Minesweeper and Solitaire, often pre-installed on Windows computers.
"And then there is the style that Nintendo has perfected and other people are trying to replicate" - in other words, the current landslide of casual games for the Wii and DS consoles, including titles like Dr. Kawashima's Brain Jogging or Wii Sports.
Electronic Arts (EA) is another game maker who has thrown their hat in the ring. The industry leader among game publishers was in Leipzig displaying titles like Boogie for the Wii: The game provides 35 hits - from musicians like The Jackson 5 or Rihanna - to be accompanied vocally over a microphone.
The player also has to tap their feet to the right dance steps. EA's Website World Wide Web.pogo.de offers numerous online titles for free playing, from card games to puzzles. A majority of the new titles target occasional players, as well as women or older people who have previously had a low opinion of video games, EA indicated at the Games Convention.
Sony has had an entire line of these games in its program for some time: Singstar for the Playstation 2. Five new instalments of the series will be in stores this autumn, all part of the casual trend: this includes one version with R'n'B tracks and another with rock ballads.
"There will probably also be a Singstar for the Playstation 3 before the year is out," says Sony spokeswoman Alexandra Wankum. The first version of the quiz game Buzz! for the Playstation 3 will appear next March.
Eidos has also declared casual games to be a core topic. "Games for killing a little time" is how spokesman Theodossios Theodoridis refers to the idea behind titles like Nervous Brickdown for Nintendo's DS.
This is a "bat-and-ball game": a ball is shot at the coloured blocks with the aid of a touch pen. Another title shown at the Games Convention was Prism: it invites DS owners to change the colouring and direction of beams of light.
Ubisoft has little use for the buzzword: "The term casual is much too ill-defined," says spokesman Norman Habakuck. The French company nevertheless has a variety of titles labelled in the "Games for me" section of its program that fit into the trend. One of these, Jam Sessions, turns the DS into a guitar: the touch pen is used to strum along to songs from Coldplay or Santana, or self-composed pieces.
"Casual games are present on all platforms," reports Olaf Wolter from the BIU - from the PC to the consoles and on to cell phones. Cell-phone based games are almost inherently casual, that is, diversionary and quick playing. Then there are titles where movement is the name of the game: Nintendo's upcoming Wii Fit or Konami's Let's Yoga! Wolters sees these as being a bit of their own genre. Even so, they speak primarily to occasional gamers or even non- players.
Does this focus on casual games mean that hard-core gamers can expect fewer titles of interest to them? "No," says Andre Horn from GamePro.
"This is an expansion of the program, not something to replace the traditional segment."
