14 DAY TRIAL // The casual game market is an extremely big one, and gaming companies are trying everything they can to attract the vast number of casual gamers who tend to like simpler titles and easier to play games.
Electronic Arts has been a publisher that was always keen on releasing casual games, and promoting them in order to get massive sales. The company invested quite a lot in its Casual label and although it has seen some improvements, it has recently decided that this division will be merged with other casual oriented studios and labels, like the Sims one, under one big division entitled Sims and Casual.
The move will incorporate the EA Casual label, the partnership the company has with toy manufacturer Hasbro in regard to developing games based on the character marketed by the company, the casual marketing research studio and, last but not least, the Sims label of Electronic Arts, which was, up until now, in charge with developing different kinds of expansion packs for the extremely popular Sims title.
"We’ve learned a lot about casual entertainment in the past two years, and found that casual gaming defies a single genre and demographic. With the departure of Kathy Vrabeck, EA is reorganizing to integrate casual games — development and marketing — into other divisions of our business. We are merging our Casual Studios, Hasbro partnership, and Casual marketing organization with The Sims Label to be a new Sims and Casual Label, where there is a deep compatibility in the product design, marketing and demographics," read the official press release from Electronic Arts.
The announcement also said that the EA Mobile, Pogo and Media Sales and Online Casual Initiatives divisions of the major corporation didn't have their fate determined yet, but, considering the fact that Pogo had already moved to a new location in Austin, Texas, its fate might be safe for the moment.