The Casual Games Association has announced that it will be hosting Casual Connect Europe. This event will run from February 6 to 8 in Amsterdam and is being held to gather industry leaders in the hope of promoting casual games as well as securing its future development.

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The E3 Media & Business Summit has more than passed us by now, but belated updates still keep pouring in at the aftermath, and gamers on their ol' trusty personal computer aren't left out of the aftershock. During E3 2007, Microsoft Game for Windows' Chris Early and Kevin Unangst didn't let up from their constant campaign for Windows Vista and the new PC gaming initiative, telling Gamasutra how Games for Windows (GfW) raises the "Quality Bar" for PC games.

"Games that carry the Games for Windows branding go through a process where we actually look through and test the games on roughly 25 different areas," said Unangst. Included into those 25 different "areas" are compatibility with the Xbox 360 controller, widescreen support, Windows Vista Games Explorer compatibility, and an easy install mode.

In a nutshell, of course, the GfW initiative actually has a team of testers run any PC game through certain categories, of which Halo 2 for Vista and Shadowrun have likely passed. Whether or not PC gamers would agree is still up for question, since Vista's online multiplayer issues, including some on basic casual games, have beat back many gamers in the PC community with outrageous feedback.

Effective July 9, Chris Early will become the general manager of Windows Live. Replacing his former position is casual games executive Bryan Tussel.

Formerly the president and chief operating officer for GameSpy Industries, Early's first position in Microsoft was as a studio manager for Microsoft Casual Games and product unit manager for Xbox Live Arcade. His specialty is the ins and outs of multiplayer gaming, which makes him the ideal man to fill the role in taking Windows Live a step further into becoming a milestone in the gaming industry.

Windows Live is Microsoft's new initiative in creating a cross-platform network between the Windows and the Xbox 360, allowing multiplayer capabilities between the two. It is currently only available on the Windows Vista. The Windows Live service has also been demonstrated to perform on mobile devices and Zune and although these aren't a reality yet, the possibilities seem to be endless. Let's wait and see what Chris Early will bring to the stage.

Even though we already have a plethora of games for the PC, you gotta admit casual games still have their appeal and lure. Why? Well, for one thing, when the need arises for a simple distraction or you've got just a few minutes to kill, casual games are one of the quickest solutions there is.

And apparently, Microsoft seems to appreciate the simplicity in casual games as well because they've launched their new Ad-Share Programing. It will allow developers to get a cut in the company's ad revenue. The real motive? More developers will produce casual games for MSN Games.

Here's how the Ad-Share Programming works: developers will be able to get 10-20% of the total in-game ad revenue generated through the game they developed. Now to qualify for this, "little and no change in the development process" is required by the developer. No details were revealed as to what this exactly means. But for the 20% share, developers would have to give just a little bit more: ESRB rating, localization, and a "deluxe" game experience that'll offer consumers at least 10 hours of gameplay.

So if you cook up a wicked game that becomes a hit on MSN Games, you can get up to US$ 250,000 annually via the Ad-Share. Chris Early, studio manager for MS Casual Games, says:

Casual game developers traditionally operate on a limited revenue model, typically receiving a set fee from downloadable titles or a small royalty associated with game subscriptions. Now, by sharing in-game advertising revenue, we're allowing a more diversified business model that gives our partners more resources to create new, innovative titles for the 13 million people we see every month on MSN Games.

We have reported a lot of CES developments for PC gaming lately. There's that report about the launching of Xbox Live for Windows Vista this summer and the availability of Geometry Wars for Vista among many other developments. All of these, according to casual games product unit manager for Microsoft U.S. Chris Early, is the key to narrow the gap between MS' PCs and console gaming platforms.

Indeed, the MS team is taking their "connected experiences" CES theme to heart. Early also mentioned that what really excites him (and most of the gamers) is the future scenario of having "one single Gamertag, to have one set of brands, to have both platforms� That really opens up gaming a lot." He also doesn't see the Vista and Xbox 360 as separate gaming platforms.

Well, Windows users can't have it all as he divulged that Windows XP won't receive a version of Live...for now. He didn't entirely rule out the possibility, but as of now, Vista is the only one getting such features. So for those loyal (or stuck) with XP, there still might be hope for you.

The 4th annual Mobile Game Conference will take place on July 13-14, 2006 in Seattle. Only a limited number of passes are available for working media, so if you don't want to lose a spot, head on over to Game Initiative's website to register.

A list of speakers have already been mentioned in this article with the addition of:

• Chris Early, Studio Manager, Microsoft Casual Games Group
• Mitch Lasky, Senior, Vice President, EA Mobile
• Kosei Ito, Vice President and Producer of Mobile Products, Square Enix North America
• Trip Hawkins, Chairman & CEO, Digital Chocolate
  

And I guess being in the American Idol era, there will also be a contest for game developers, indie game developers and publishers to present their nights-and-weekend designs in front of a panel of mobile games executives who can bring them to market. The winning presenters, will have 5 minutes to pitch their game to a select panel of judges like Kris Davis, Games Product Marketing Manger (Sprint), Andrew Stein, Sr. Product Manager (Cingular) and Paul Nakayama, Sr. Director, Content Programming (Amp'd Mobile).

This year's E3 revealed Live Anywhere as part of a plan to boost the number of Xbox Live subscribers. Extending the Xbox Live service to multiple platforms, Live Anywhere will allow players to move easily from one gaming environment to another while using a single player identity across several communities.

Microsoft has announced that Live Anywhere will be extending to other mobile platforms like Java and Symbian. Qualcomm's Brew 2006 Conference reveals that Live Anywhere will also be working with a non-Microsoft mobile platform. Microsoft's upcoming service will be having its own Brew mobile software development and delivery platform.

The images splattered in this article show images from the Brew 2006 Conference where the announcement of having Live Anywhere service on Brew phones was announced. With this new extension in the Live service, Brew phone users can now queue downloads from their phones so their 360s can download them while they are away. Checking out clan messages, purchasing games, and connecting with Xbox Live friends will now also be possible on a Brew phone.

Although the entire vision for Live anywhere will take a couple of years to fully realize, Microsoft Casual Games studio manager Chris Early says that users will see some elements of it on phones by next year's E3. Porting Live Anywhere to Brew phones will allow Microsoft to reach a broader mobile market as Brew is offered by 69 operators in 31 countries.