GigaOM

These sites, in alphabetical order, offer food for thought with posts that will widen your perspective on the interaction of business and design in games, particularly in the realm of casual gaming.

1. Brinking by Nabeel Hyatt. Nabeel is a serial entrepreneur, currently co-founder of Conduit Labs. He shares insights into the intersection of virtual worlds and social web space.

2. Game Tycoon by Dave Edery. Dave manages the worldwide portfolio of games for Xbox Live, and is a research affiliate at MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program. His blog ranges over a variety of game-related topics, but often considers the future of game development and distribution.

3. Games*Design*Art*Culture by Greg Costikyan. Greg is no-holds-barred and always smart and funny, although you may find yourself in vehement disagreement.

4. Guardian UK Games by Aleks Krotoski. The most mainstream-friendly on this list, Aleks covers games from cultural and consumer perspectives.
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While last week some called the popularity of the Wii a bubble that was on the verge of bursting, retailers are admitting that supply may, for the second year in a row, fail to keep up with consumer demand.

So what’s going on here? There seems to be an odd disconnect between consumers and developers. Consumers still want the Wii, clearly, but third-party developers may be getting tired of the Wii’s uniquely challenging development environment. And their reward? Slumping software sales. So what do consumers want to Wii for?

I’m not sure, but I’m guessing it’s part curiosity, part faith — faith that Nintendo will continue to deliver software that is as fun as Wii Sports, as high-quality as Legend of Zelda.

Though others have hinted at it in the past, Radiohead’s move to offer its latest album, “In Rainbows,” as a direct download — for a price set by the consumer — is a first among high-profile bands. It’s also a watershed moment in the music business, and one the game industry would be foolish not to pay attention to. The lesson is simple, really: Create a fair and consumer-friendly way to free the media.

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On the heels of ECD Systems CEO Jack Hart’s article exploring the methods of growing revenue for casual games, IGA Worldwide said it has signed an in-game advertising deal with casual games publisher Merscom. Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Merscom makes downloadable titles for the PC, as well as Nintendo DS games — the kinds of games that might experience pressure to grow ever more polished (much like the giant console games did) as competitors try to one-up each other with better graphics and better sound design, thus necessitating higher budgets and schemes like in-game advertising.

How casual games will deal with advertising content is still up in the air. In-game advertising has worked beautifully for some titles, but of course it’s all about context — seeing Best Buy (BBY) signs in the world of GTA III makes sense; seeing them in World of Warcraft, not so much.

There is a reluctance to repeat the mistakes of others. At Casual Connect conference in Amsterdam earlier this year, Microsoft (MSFT) Casual Games’ studio manager Chris Early cautioned against going crazy with in-game ads. “If we get to the point of getting like commercial television on cable channels where ads are so intrusive of the experience,” he said, “then people won’t play anymore.”
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The growth of casual gaming has spawned an unprecedented variety, and quality, of free web-based games. And as the development quality gets ever higher, it attracts more talent, bigger budgets, and more ambitious scopes. Here are five terrific games from independent developers you might have missed the first time around. All of these can be played in your browser, with Flash. Go on, it’s Sunday — waste a little time!

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The massive success of Nintendo’s cheeky cerebral treadmill, Brain Age, which stayed on Japan’s best-seller list for 34 weeks and has sold over 8.6 million units, has tempted other companies into experimenting with non-games. The fact that older people bought Nintendo’s handheld console, the DS Lite, solely to try out Brain Age, signified a real shift in the potential for growing new revenue.

But can a device that was essentially created as a toy flex enough power to accommodate functions beyond pure entertainment? More importantly — and the underlying question that makes the game-makers tremble — can these new applications drive enough sales from outside of the core gaming group to establish an expanded market for the consoles?

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TOKYO: I’m at the Tokyo Game Show, which drew in more than 190,000 people last year, looking for games that really stand out, games that take the state of gaming in new directions. I’m searching for signs, in other words, that the Japanese game industry isn’t moribund — that the wave of disruptive technology Nintendo started with the Wii is continuing to push other innovations. But with an anemic keynote by Sony (SNE) and a floor packed with RPGs and third-person action and insipid puzzlers, TGS has failed to prove, so far, that the Japanese game industry is looking squarely at the future.

By all rights, Sony should have owned this show. Nintendo isn’t around, Microsoft (MSFT) is barely making a dent — the show is Sony’s for the taking. And what do they announce? Dual Shock controller! Hooray, last-generation PS2 technology is finally on PS3. The company also made some vague promises of cross-platform play linking the PSP to the PS3, but offered no specifics and no demo.

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