The casual game sector is poised to burst into the virtual world ranks of EA and Blizzard.  VC firms are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the makers of games like Pam’s Pie Palace and Jewel Jammer, entrusting them to create massive persistent scalable interactive universes. It is hard to walk down Sand Hill Road and say “It’s like Ultima meets Seinfeld” without getting hit with a sack of cash.

The formula is self evident: First step, blend together the engineering of WoW with the casual publishers’ 2% of the shareware for Women 35-54 market; Next do step two; and then profit in step three from your Casual MMO.  To that end I have compiled an exhaustive and comprehensive list of all the casual game publishers who are NOT working on a casual MMO (see below).

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I have written about games needing Big Moments, just as life does.  It might not seem like much, but iQ212 got its first Harry and David holiday gift box delivered this week, as a gift from one of our partners (who? wait for the press release!).  In the growth of our company, this is a Big Moment. 

I may be sentimental this time of year, but getting the gift box was way more impactful than the signing of our CA incorporation papers (a bureaucratic denouement).  Getting the giftbox really validates our work over the past year; reminds us that we are not toiling in a vacuum.  The next Big Moment for iQ212 will be our company Christmas party; a celebration and “thank you” to the team and their families.  I guess every startup has similar moments, but this was ours.  Future big moments? our multi-platform product launch; paying taxes; cashing our first royalty check; IPO?!?!?.  Right now I am happy eating this pear.  Happy Holidays.

What a blast form Christmas past! I saw this on FARK today.  Some guy digitized the Sears Christmas Wishbook from 1982 onto Flickr.  I looked through the toys section with my daughters and not much has changed.  They found most of the same toys and brands that they have on their 2007 Santa lists (Barbie, electric guitar, Legos, Breyer horses, etc.). 

But Wait, There’s More! The Bestest part are the old-school electronic games!  Here is a link to a Flickr slideshow for the games section.  Check it out! How many of these did you have?  What didn’t your mom get you? How many DO you still have? (I bet Chen has most of them, in original packaging, in his garage!) 

One thing I noticed is that prices from 1982 to 2007 are about the same.  The prices for Barbie, Lego, Playmobil, and other staples are the same as they are now at Walmart.  And even Intellivision  was $259, the same as a console today.  The major price shift is in small electronic games; back in the day they cost fifty bucks, and now they are disposable Happy Meal toys!

So, what was on my Wishlist in 1982? Dark Tower, Vectrex, Merlin, and a bunch of Atari games.

It is that time of year: when there is a chill in the air, crappy flip phones attached to two-year contracts are given as gifts, and John Szeder (the Mayor of Mobile) composes another Yuletide ditty.  Please to enjoy…

Twas the night before Christmas, and on the carrier decks,
Many publisher’s games were revenue wrecks.
The GLU had just melted, Vivendi got sold,
Tetris part seven had just been declared gold!

Holiday crunching on games for new phones,
Caused QA headaches, long hours and moans.
The handsets are buggy, the firmware is broken,
Developers wished they lived in Hoboken.

The iPhone was shipping, a million people had bought.
Cheap javascript knockoff games are the best that they got.
Android was announced and was coming on the horizon,
And soon, you could get open access on Verizon.

“We are open!” declared carriers “come use our pipe!”
People were too busy making free calls on Skype.
So cheer up! It’s Christmas! And while the carriers slumbered
Open access for all means their days are numbered.

So ship your games and fix bugs with good cheer,
And Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

     –John “Burgermeister Meisterburger of Mobile” Szeder