So what made casual gaming take off into the stratosphere? Why have developers continued to pour money into it? Why do casual gamers continue to farm farms and cafe cafes?

As a console-focused gamer the growth of casual games seems to have hit hard and fast and shows no sign of stopping. One console generation ago casual games were badly made kids movie tie-ins or puzzle games. There were some efforts that headed in the right direction; the trivia 'Buzz' series on the PS2 sold well. It's reduced simple 5 button controller was certainly more friendly to new players than the intimidating DualShock controller. However, nothing had stuck with the non-traditional audience.

I won't try and answer 'where did casual gaming begin?' but I can definitely point towards the catalyst, the event that has triggered the revolution we are still experiencing:

Nintendo's decision to create simple to play, cheap to develop games opened up corporate eyes to the huge untapped potential of the non-traditional gaming audience. 

My entire life I had been a Ninty fanboy. From discovering the Star Road in Super Mario World, to a near religious reverence for Ocarina of Time; Nintendo played as large a part in shaping my skillset, tastes and imagination as anything I learnt in a school.  So the Wii was, and is still, upsetting. I haven't run screaming through the streets self-flagellating myself and begging for Din, Farore, and Nayru to pass guidance to the Almighty N, but I've come close.With few exceptions (the glorious Mario Galaxy triple jumps to mind) Nintendo's Wii-based efforts have turned their back on me and by extension the traditional gamer that has embraced them their entire lives. 

Enough about that though; Nintendo is a company that made an incredibly wise business choice, my nerd-bitterness is barely audible over the sound of cash registers 'cha-chinging' up another Wii sale. Far better writers have commented on the Wii and Nintendo's attitude to it's 'core' audience so let's move on.

It may be an obvious point to make that the Wii opened the floodgates for casual gaming. By iterating this though it opens up a whole branch of other questions I would like to write about - 

• Has the Wii's astronomical abundance of shit games harmed a whole generation of gamers?
• When did casual gaming find a foothold in browser-based platforms?
• Where does social gaming enter the foray, and is it important?
• And most importantly, where are we heading, are developers going to find it harder and harder to justify developing expensive games for a 'hardcore' niche?