As the almighty Nintendo DS Lite and Wii have shown, the casual gaming market might be laidback in approach, and it is anything but casual when it comes to sales numbers and money in the bank. This paradigm shift has caused Lifetime Television and RealNetworks to tap into this very same demographic, aiming to bring advertising-filled, pick up and play titles which will be made available on the RealArcade platform. In fact, the first game of this series will be Sally’s Salon that gives gamers the opportunity to run a simulated beauty salon without dishing up a single cent as investment or training.

New games will be released every quarter, and as mentioned, Sally’s Salon will be the first. In addition to having some leisure time with these titles, there will be Lifetime promos being run within its ad-enabled games, where spending a few minutes to view contextual ads that appear between levels is translated into longer periods of free play. Are ladies these days so hard up for free games that require them to view ads? I suspect not, as they’ll have better luck having a go at Cake Mania on the DS instead.

It seems as though these casual games will target the female crowd which has long been acknowledged not to be part of the hardcore gaming demographic, but rather people who prefer to get a spot of gaming here and there. Will this strategy actually reap dividends in the long run? I am sure that serious gamers will see this as an affront to the ‘art’ of gaming, but then again when money comes into contention, the essence of gaming will shift towards dollar signs rather than fulfilling the wishes and fancies of those who really care. Kind of reminds me of soccer, where there is some form of glamorized slave trade going on. Just check out David Beckham’s insane annual salary and you’ll know what I mean.

Source: Kotaku

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