The simplicity of casual games' designs, their quick game play and no-frills controls have made them perfectly suited for a life beyond the desktop. Games like checkers can tempt players with as much as $4,000 in jackpots.Ĭompanies that promote the sites assert that the games are won by skill and not luck, and the United States government has yet to deem such competitions illegal, but concerns that the games may be construed as gambling have been enough to cause some states, including Connecticut, to prohibit their use. At Web sites like and, for example, players compete against one another in games like Bejeweled, with the highest score winning the purse. Other casual game sites bait players with the opportunity to win real money. Repeat visitors registering with the MSN site can collect special badge icons for achieving high scores or enduring long game sessions. The MSN Zone uses virtual badges to earn loyalty. With the games duplicated in so many places, Web portals must find innovative ways to keep visitors on their sites.
Others, like Bookworm, a popular game on sites like Yahoo's game portal, challenge players to find words amid a jumble of on-screen letters to gain points and complete levels, with special word tiles and hazards like burning books and writer's blocks adding extra excitement.ĭiner Dash, another simple and popular arcade-style game found at the Yahoo game site, casts the player as a waitress hustling to serve a never-ending parade of hungry guests, as the heroine works her way up from diners to luxury restaurants. Word games like Scrabble Rack Attack, found on AOL () and MSN, dare players to make as many words as possible from a random mix of letters. Word and trivia games test knowledge rather than logic. In addition, Bejeweled's maker, PopCap Games, has counted more than 100 million downloads of the enhanced shareware version, which does not require an Internet connection to play, and the game has been designed for mobile devices like cellphones and hand-held computers, as well as casino slot machines. The game of sorting similar gemstones is among the most widely offered of casual games and is consistently among the most popular games played on portal sites. The most common match game, however, is Bejeweled 2. Visitors can try his latest creation, called Hexic, which challenges players to match colored hexagon tiles to clear pieces from the game board. In fact, the success of Tetris inspired Microsoft's casual-games group to hire the game's inventor, Alexey Pajitnov, to create new matching games to bring traffic to the MSN Zone (). Yahoo Games (), for instance, provides a variety of ways to join up and converse with other players. That shouldn't be much of a surprise, as solitaire still comes loaded on every Windows operating system.īut portal sites have many more classic games, which take advantage of chats and instant messenger agents to aid multiplayer capabilities and create a sense of community. In most cases, players wanting more than the bare-bones, low-resolution versions offered free can purchase premium shareware versions, with extended game features and improved graphics, usually for $20 or less.įor many years, classic card and board games have made for popular casual games. Servers for Microsoft Bingo on Windows 8, Windows 10, and Windows Phone are also due to close on April 5th.Today, casual games are found on major Internet portals like Yahoo, the MSN Zone of Microsoft and America Online, as well as special game sites like and RealArcade (The sites offer hundreds of games free, building site traffic and an audience for advertising, while offering perks and occasional payoffs for repeat visitors. According to comments in our forums, Daily Challenge progress can be transferred for some of these games on Windows 10 and Mobile, but this reportedly needs to be done before February 15th. To open the Games folder, click the Windows logo in the bottom left corner of your display, then click Games in the right pane. "You will, however, be able to continue playing and earning in-game achievements without change until April 5, 2021, when the game services will officially expire from Windows 8/8.1," the FAQ post reads. Learn more about how you can use Windows to simplify your life with Windows Guides 2 WINDOWS GUIDE Casual Games on Windows Windows Vista comes with a great selection of games that you can play anytime. The Microsoft Casual Games team says that these games were deslited from the Windows 8 Microsoft Store back in December and are no longer available to download.
Servers for the following games are due to close on April 5th, 2021: It is with deep regret that we are unable to dedicate the necessary resources to continue providing these beloved games on this platform." A post from the Microsoft Casual Games team on the Microsoft Casual Games FAQ page reads, "After careful consideration, Microsoft Casual Games Studio has made the difficult decision to no longer support our game experiences on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems.
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