Big Fish Games comes to iPad

Market Watch reports.

With Play Instantly, Big Fish's casual game catalogue is run in the cloud and can be accessed initially on the iPad, and will roll out on a variety of additional devices and platforms in 2012.

Venture Beat says customers will be asked to pay $6.99 per month in order to access dozens of games, such as Mahjong Towers and Mystery Case Files, through the Big Fish app, which will initially require WiFi access to operate.

Paul Thelen, founder of Big Fish Games, revealed that gaining approval for the service did not come easily. “It took longer than usual to be approved. They needed to be convinced there's a reason to charge customers every month.”

Big Fish is not the only company that sell subs to its games, OnLive already offers a similar service in the form of its PlayPack tariff, but that's only for its own micro console and desktop computers, The Register notes.

The offering will start at $4.99, rising to $6.99 next year once the company adds a few more titles to the mix. Intriguingly, Big Fish claims 75% of its players are women aged 30 and over, which might seem a step away from the usual computer gaming demographic.