SharkJumping

Have been busy on other things for a week, so I have been unable to post, but the fact that continues to strike me is how few really informed people know what the casual game portal Miniclip is, and more importantly, how amazingly large it actually is.  I have never personally met the team, but you're looking at a very small group of folks in the UK who have built what Alexa (poor man's measurement system) portrays as a top 200 global site, all built around around casual games.

Unlike much larger players such as RealArcade, this site offers a wide variety of games from around the world, including standard downloadable games, online java ones, MMOG's from our friends at  Puzzle Pirates and Runescape, and fun games/movies such as the infamous Bush and Britney dance sequence, all without any type of download required for the core enjoyment experience, and very little of which appears to be originated by Miniclip itself.

This is all another example of how an under-the-radar site like Miniclip can can prosper without a lot of PR since it's focused on casual games vs the larger audience of console games.  With the ongoing advertising shift in budgets to interactive media from traditional media, you will see sites such as Miniclip and pick up large amounts of ad dollars since they are delivering what advertisers lack - younger consumers.  It's not necessarily about the downloadable business, it's about the number of eyeballs you can deliver in this new world, and casual games such as Miniclip are a great vehicle.