Wildtangent to offer casual games on Toshiba notebooks

Los Angeles (CA) - Wildtangent announced the launch of Toshiba Games, a virtual gaming console application and an online casual game portal it developed specifically for Toshiba notebook computers. Under the partnership, Toshiba will pre-install the console and five top-selling casual games on select models of its Satellite notebook computers. In addition, the console will link to the Toshiba Games portal, a web site created Wildtangent.

With the Toshiba Games software, Toshiba notebook customers will have access to more than 250 casual games, including popular titles like Polar Bowler, FATE, and Final Drive : Nitro. The application will allow users to download and install casual games using Wildtangent’s compression software. The Toshiba Games software is also designed to deliver high-quality graphic games over any connection type in a very short time. And like other Wildtangent customers, Toshiba Games users will be able to purchase and play games using the company’s new WildCoins micro-payment system.

Wildtangent’s partnership with Toshiba will give casual games a big boost, but it’s merely the beginning, according to Wildtangent CEO Alex St. John. In an interview with TwitchGuru, St. John said WildTangent has established similar agreements with Dell and Hewlett-Packard. "Very soon we’re going to have the Wildtangent consoles on more than two thirds of all new PCs sold in North America," St. John said. "That’s going to be a huge boost for casual games."

In addition to pre-installing its software on PCs, St. John believes that his company’s Wildcoin micropayment system, which will debut this spring or early summer, will increase the revenue for casual games. "Typically with casual games, you offer people free content until it gets to be around $20 in value, and then you start charging," he said. "We found that to be a significant challenge because only a small number of people are going to pay the full amount to own a game, and most people just aren’t going to pay one or two dollars with their credit card systems to play a casual game."

With Wildcoins, customers can buy a roll of "coins" for $20 as if they were in an arcade and spend them on whatever games they choose. With Wildcoins payment options, customers can either purchase sessions of the game or buy the full game to own it. "Basically, we’ve monetized the entire space between a free game and a $20 game," St. John said.