The Wall Street Journal notes that MySpace is seeking to create a destination for casual gamers by hiring Oberon Media.
Casual games are very popular, but they aren’t bringing in as much money as “hardcore” games yet, because they’re typically free:
Casual games accounted for just $380 million in revenue last year in the U.S., compared with $4.78 billion in sales of console games, according to estimates by Pacific Crest Securities and NPD Group Inc.The growth rate for the business is more than double that of the console business, with casual-games revenue expected to jump 35% to $512 million this year, predicts Pacific Crest.