So what kind of devs are still making PC casual games in 2022? We reached out for an interview with a leading PC casual game dev – Jorg Henseler of Mad Data, developer of Jewel Match Origins 2: Bavarian Palace and Jewel Match Solitaire X, and he was kind enough to give us the following insights: Same players for 20 years

Ad revenue (some sites let players play the game as much as they want but they have to sit through ads.).

Revenue from minutes played (some sites give you access to many games for a monthly membership, and then devs are paid a share of the overall play time.).

Actual game sales (normally the player downloads a demo, and if they like it they buy the full game.).

(Only 20% to the dev!)Īnyhow, there are multiple ways you can get money on PC casual sites, according to a source that we reached out to:

But historically, PC casual game portals keep a minimum of 60% of total revenue, unless you get some kind of exclusive deal – and some of the portals keep as much as 75-80% of revenue. You might think that giving a 30% cut to Steam is unfortunately high. One surprising thing about the PC casual portal biz is the revenue cut.

Here’s the breakdown that GameDiscoverCo did of the primary genre of the latest 50 games in iWin’s YouTube channel, as of mid-May 2022: The genre mix is also fascinating, and doesn’t map well to core popular Steam genres or top mobile genres of today. Look everyone, it’s Vacation Adventures: Park Ranger 13! Collector’s edition! So what’s going on? It appears that a small subset of the older (often female-centric) demographic of the original casual games boom 20 years ago just… kept buying PC games, and never transitioned to mobile gaming.The kind of games you’re seeing can have a hilariously large amount of sequels, since you’re trying to get people to buy each game, or use their credits/subscription to play them. Other still-existing portals include GameHouse and WildTangent. Sites like distribute a new casual game every day, Big Fish Games still has a PC games section with many new games, and not all of these titles even appear on Steam. I was astounded to discover that this market is still alive in 2022. From publishers and developers that branded themselves specifically as casual game companies, like Big Fish Games, PopCap Games, and MumboJumbo.

We will be talking about PC casual games that used to cost $20, back in 2006 or so.

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