PSP World

Casual Games Succeed in Bad Economy

After learning about Ubisoft's amazing 2008 financial results, we came to the conclusion that there was money to be made in casual games, sometimes derisively referred to as shovelware. Majesco has now proven us correct, by being the only other video game company on the face of the earth to turn a profit last quarter. Amazingly, for the quarter ended January 31, 2009, Majesco's revenues jumped up 75.8 percent and total income increased by an astonishing 54 percent.

Even more surprisingly, the company didn’t even release a single game that we played. Someone was buying Majesco titles, but they weren’t gamers like you and I. Last generation Majesco was almost a household name among the so-called hardcore demographic -- we couldn’t get enough of games like Psychonauts and BloodRayne, for example. They even published the excellent and critically acclaimed zombie gore-fest Infected on the Sony PSP.

But now, the company is better known for its Cake Mania and Cooking Mama series of casual handheld titles. And according to a company spokesperson, the biggest seller for Majesco leading up to the Holiday buying bonanza was its Wii Fit knockoff, Jilian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum. This is wonderful news for company shareholders, but less so for fans of their older games.

"Our success was driven by strong demand across our product line, specifically for our Cooking Mama titles and the newly released Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009, which has become a hit with approximately 500,000 copies sold to date. We are well positioned to capitalize on the increasing demand for family friendly mass market games, the fastest growing segment of the industry, which in part is being driven by the success of Nintendo's platforms," said company CEO Jesse Sutton.

Due to the success of these “games”, Majesco has seemingly abandoned hardcore development altogether. The company announced that it will bring out two more casual titles in 2009: Gardening Mama and Puffins Island Adventure.

Casual game development and shovelware are not such a big problem, as long as they don’t impede gamers from buying titles that they actually want. But when an established company stops making hardcore games in favor of casual titles, then we sit up and take notice.

Screenshot from the upcoming Gardening Mama.