Don't you find it just a wee bit ironic that your example of a high quality casual game is one that was never launched because the Developer folded? ;)

Certainly, I think there is a market for casual games (look at the success of Maple Story and/or Puzzle Pirates) but if you are talking about dividing up development budgets between a AAA and 3 or 4 casual titles, the decision gets a bit more treacherous. I'm guessing that banking on big games just made more sense to the powers that be at NCsoft than hoping to strike it rich with one of a wide stable of smaller scale ones.

Sort of Run-and-Gun development vs a "4 yards and a cloud of dust" strategy. As I said before, I like some of NCsoft's games so I hope it works out.