REPORT: Casual Connect Hamburg Part 1

This year saw a new venue and a new country so whats the verdict?

Although I don't love it as much as Amsterdam, Hamburg is a great city and the new venue although lacking in character was definitely better for business. Some of the usual suspects were absent including Mumbo Jumbo, EA, Majesco & ValueSoft. However they were swiftly replaced by many new comers and rising stars.

These included Super Rewards, KaiserGames & MMOlife, and a host of support companies who focus on payment and back end systems including TwoFish represented by the infamous Sean Ryan.

There was a big focus on community gaming, Mobile and monetization in general. And for very good reason....download is being hit hard very hard....$19.99 has slipped to $6.99 and even $5.99 on Real Arcade, which hints that they are not clear on strategy or direction is a $1 cheaper a Real strategy?. Real have recently ditched the console division and in the past they have purchased a range of companies including Trymedia and GameTrust, Real are a big player but dont seem to have a clear vision. Big Fish will continue to grab audience from Real and others, Ply First will probably release yet another Dash mashup...but for me have failed to capitalize on their position and may have peaked although they have actively worked on their community and this could be the area they focus on for growth.

BigPoint, Gameforge, Wild Tangent and Spil are all positioned well for further growth and there is room for in Eastern Europe and Asia also especially as the payment systems have become more sophisticated. Many of the eastern European developers attended the event, these included Alwar, Playrix and Astrum Online.


The clear message from many developers seemed to be you can not focus on the "PC Download market" as a single business model, those days are gone and you are lucky if your last in the top 10 for a couple of weeks the market is flooded with content and you need to develop a strategy. At the moment Browser has become king and community gaming is the next wave for casual, I think that these communities will end up becoming a great distribution channel for the PC Download market possibly with a pay to earn the game model linked to community points.

Thanks to all the team at Casual Connect for a great event keep up the good work.

Part 2 coming soon.