Big Fish Games, one of the most important casual game developers and creator of the Mystery Case Files series, announces that it has attracted $83.3 million dollars in expansion funds from Balderton Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Salmon River Capital. Reuters reports that this is the biggest line of credit obtained by a United States online gaming company.

The company says that it will use the money to implement plans for global expansion, including the launch of a website explicitly aimed at Japanese players and the opening of a new branch of the company in Vancouver.

Big Fish Games also plans to hire more people for its Seattle offices, which can house some 450 employees and where currently only around 310 people work. The company has managed so far to expand at break neck speed, seeing how in 2005 it only had 55 people on its payroll.

The company took great care to point out that it was not having cash flow issues and that it has made a profit in all the years it has been operative. The slow United States economy might even benefit Big Fish Games as more people cut back on spending related to entertainment outside the house while using more money to purchase casual games, which have easily understandable gameplay mechanics and do not require a lot of time to play.

Mark Evans, who will join the board of the company under the terms of the financing deal, thinks that “Big Fish Games has a remarkably deep and talented management team and the company is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the worldwide growth of online interactive entertainment. We, along with General Catalyst and Salmon River, are thrilled with the opportunity to partner with the Big Fish Games team and contribute to their rapid growth and market leadership”.

The casual games market is estimated to be the quickest growing segment of the videogames industry with as much as one in three Americans in some studies admitting that they play what the developers dub as casual games.