Casual gamers, get ready for some serious playtime! Last week, PopCap Games, the worldwide leader in casual games, announced it is partnering with NCsoft, the leading provider of online and MMO games, to create PopCap® World, the world's "first online multiplayer social game service," which will debut at the end of the year in Korea. The company promises that PopCap® World, the first product to be developed and released by PopCap's Shanghai studio, will be the Disneyland for gamers. And, this is only the first step in the company's global online and social strategies. Said James Gwertzman, PopCap's Vice President for Asia/Pacific, "When Disneyland first opened, it revolutionized the amusement park industry and ushered in the era of the modern theme park. In the same way, we believe PopCap® World has the potential to redefine casual games in Korea and beyond by offering players the most immersive PopCap experience yet."

It makes sense that PopCap would be the company to create a world specifically for casual gamers. Since 2000, it has been the go-to company for the creation of casual games. The founders of PopCap were among the first to realize the potential depth of this business, which has grown into a $2.25 billion industry with a growth rate of 20% per year. Currently, it is estimated that more than 200 million people play casual games online every month. The most stunning statistic about casual gaming is its demographic: No, casual gamers are not the prototypical teenage boys who'd rather communicate with other gamers than socialize with girls. Surprisingly, over half (51%) of those who play casual games are women and more than 75% of all casual gamers are over the age of 29. Most casual gamers play 20 to 60 minutes daily, although many play for hours. Craig Holland, founder of game publisher Freeze Tag and marketing director with the Casual Games Association (CGA), says that women account for 74 percent of casual gamers who actually pay to download games. With these kinds of statistics, it's no wonder that PopCap and NCsoft created this exciting new venture.

PopCap is the perfect creator of this gamer's Disneyland since it is the leading multi-platform provider of casual video games. Since the company's founding in 2000, more than 1.5 billion games have been downloaded from Popcap. In fact, more than 50 million copies of PopCap's signature game, Bejeweled, which is widely considered to be the "founding father" of the casual games industry, have been sold since 2001. All of the games on PopCap's Web site are free, with deluxe versions available for a price. In recent years, PopCap has found equal success in the mobile and social networking games markets and is now the only video game provider in the world with leading market share across the entire spectrum.

Meanwhile, PopCap's partner, NCsoft, is a global leader in providing online and MMO games. In 1998, the company unveiled Lineage, the first Korean Internet-based graphic MUD (Multi User Dungeon). Since that time, other iterations of Lineage have been released to great success in addition to several of the company's other massively popular titles, including Guild Wars and Aion.

It makes sense that Korea would be the starting point for this new venture. The country is well-known for being home to many of the world's more serious gamers. In fact, I wrote about the problem of gaming addictions suffered by residents of South Korea, which are well-documented and which caused the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to create several plans to combat the problem. But, on the plus side, according to the Aspen Institute, casual games are among the least addictive video games on the market, so hopefully PopCap® World will be just that - a fun place to play fun games.

When PopCap® World premieres, 13 of the company's award-winning games will be available and free to play with optional, premium paid elements to be added later. Among the 13 titles will be Bejeweled , Plants vs. Zombies and Zuma. In addition, an all-new, multiplayer game, Super Zuma is being built specifically for Korean players.

According to Gwertzman, PopCap® World is only the beginning of this hopefully successful enterprise. "We are very excited about our partnership with NCsoft," Gwertzman said, "Their formidable presence in the online market combined with PopCap's leadership in the casual and social spaces makes for an interesting recipe that we look forward to serving up to players in Korea - and beyond." Mr. Whang, NCsoft's Vice President for Web Business Center, added, "We are thrilled to be collaborating with PopCap Games on this new project. We look forward to a successful launch and to opening up this new world of fun to both our existing Korean users, as well as to a whole new audience for whom this may be their first online game."

Hopefully, PopCap® World will be successful enough that it can be brought to the United States. As someone who plays casual games every day (and for much longer than 20 minutes, I might add), I foresee many hours of clicking away in front of the screen, being alternately annoyed and entertained by those falling jewels.

So, readers? How excited are you by the creation of PopCap® World?