"Spending the winter of 2006-07 in New York City, I was beginning to lose count of the times I had heard the same story: somebody had taken the new Nintendo Wii video game system home to parents, grandparents, partner, none of whom had ever expressed any interest whatsoever in video games, and these non-players of video games had been enthralled by the physical activity of the simple sports games, had enjoyed themselves, and had even asked that the video game be brought along for the next gathering. What was going on?"

(A Casual Revolution, introduction).

 

A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players, out now on MIT Press, chronicles the rise of the casual games: puzzle games, the Nintendo Wii, and music games. These are video games that reach beyond the traditional video game audience; games that redefine what a video game can be, and who can be a video game player.

• A Casual Revolution translated into Korean.
• Paperback version is out.
• Kindle version now available.
• Added new reviews.
• Interview on the USA Today Game Hunters blog.
• Contributed with end-of 2009 predictions about the future of video games and music games on USA Today.
• Interview excerpts on Kotaku.

• "Let's start with the hype. A Casual Revolution is terrific. A succinct, informative, thoughtful examination of the forces that have been, as its subtitle says, reinventing video games and their players. Oh, and on top of all that, it's just plain fun to read."
  -Tap Repeatedly.

• One of the Five Essential Books on Video Games.
  "Jesper Juul’s “A Casual Revolution” is a deftly argued and thoroughly researched recommendation."
  -Jamin Brophy Warren in The New Yorker.

• "Crowds mobbed Nintendo's booth, clamoring to play it, rushing past the fancier Xbox and Playstation demonstrations. It was the first sign that something was fundamentally shifting in the videogame industry. Jesper Juul's "A Casual Revolution" explains what happened, and why."
  -Jonathan V. Last, Wall Street Journal.

• "A trenchant look at the rise of casual gaming".
  -Keith Stuart, The Guardian Gamesblog.

• "A Casual Revolution will be valuable for academics and those in industry, and will help keep the sun shining on games."
  -Nick Montfort, author of Twisty Little Passages and Racing the Beam.

• "Jesper Juul’s latest book, The Casual Revolution, outlines the basic design principles of these games, corrects misconceptions about how they work, and makes the argument for designers to break out of their own perspectives."
  -L.B. Jeffries, PopMatters.

• "Phenomenal".
  -Jamin Brophy Warren in Slate.

• "A Casual Revolution is indispensable for summarising the current videogame industry, removing casual prejudices at every page."
  -Robert Jackson, Leonardo.
  

• “An indispensible read for anyone interested or working in the field of video games. Jesper Juul makes sense of the shifting terrain of video game audiences and proves to be one of the finest minds in video games. A ground-breaking book!”
  —Sean Baptiste, Manager of Community Development, Harmonix Music Systems

• “A Casual Revolution is a hard look at the unique characteristics of games outside of the hardcore. Juul pushes past the prejudice that casual games are somehow lesser experiences and presents a multifaceted view of ‘casualness,’ casual players and the non-trivial role of these deeply engaging games in our social and cultural lives.”
  —Tracy Fullerton, Director, USC Game Innovation Lab, USC School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media Division

• “A thoughtful examination of casual gaming. I wouldn’t be surprised to find this book sitting on the shelves of game developers, marketers, and scholars. Juul has combined player ethnography, developer interviews, and informed analysis to produce an exemplary piece of game research.”
  —Chaim Gingold, Designer, Spore Creature Creator