The term 'casual games' has been used in the video game industry for several years. Casual games are considered to be games that can be played quickly and easily, with little learning curve and generally no need to save the game's progress.
In general, there is no specific genre associated with casual games, but some of the more popular types include puzzle games, word games, card games, and others of the same likeness. Consider solitaire, this is a game that can be picked up and played on almost any platform, including a cell phone. In addition, many casual games can be finished fairly quickly.
The popularity of casual games is fairly high since many people that play them do not even consider themselves to be a gamer.
Casual games are most often played via a Flash or Java based platform on a PC, but are now appearing in larger quantities on video game consoles and moble phones.
Perhaps the most prominent example of a casual game is Solitaire, which is included with the Windows operating system. Other examples include simple 'match three or more' type games such as Bejeweled, or on-line versions of word search games.
