Casual games are moving into core game territory.

Observed:

A casual game with a Strategy Guide!!! Expedition Amazon, Big Fish's exclusive, is complex enough to warrant a strategy guide - sold separately.

Play magazine's editor Brady Fisher admits to enjoying playing Order Up, "It's really the first game I've played where I really want to re-evaluate what casual gaming means". Order Up is a game about becoming a cook and managing a restaurant. And if he likes that, he can go on to Cooking Mama 2 - Dinner with Friends and learn cooking and prep from escargot to meat loaf.

When a renowned writer like Jane Jensen who was responsible for the Gabriel Knight series of games writes for a casual - James Patterson Woman's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet, you know that the genre has attained enough prestige to attract top of the line industry talent.

When Taito starts reissuing Space Invaders and Arkanoid, and Infograms reissues some of Humongous' best kid titles - Pajama Sam and Spy Fox, you know that there is a market out there.

Casuals are now seen boxed on store shelves - even Amazon carries them.

Casuals are proliferating - Big Fish announces a new one every day; Game Tap - every Thursday.

These casuals have evolved from Match Three to Seek and Find, to adventure and strategy games combining these elements giving us: Puzzle Quest Challenge of the Warlords and James Patterson Woman's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet

When the Casual Game Conference in July has a good chance of attracting more attendees then the E308 Media & Business Summit you know the times are a changin'.