Late last week major casual games maker Oberon Media announced that they’ve made a big move, signaling “only the beginning” of a greater strategy of getting involved in the world of free-to-play/microtransaction supported titles.

Based in New York, Oberon Media develops and publishes games for casual web and most game platforms. Signaling a major shift in the way the company seeks to monetize their products, Oberon Media’s i-play division has launched Bubble Town: Party Planet (an upgrade to Bubble Town, a title that’s been played over 120 million times) on Facebook, featuring a free-to-play methodology. As with 99.44% of all free-to-play titles, Bubble Town: Party Planet allows players to use RMT (Real Money Transactions) to purchase virtual items and goods for their in-game characters.

“Oberon delivers a quality gaming experience for all devices and environments, and we see huge opportunity and growth potential with MTX-enabled content. It is our goal to bring a whole new casual gaming experience to players, and a profitable platform model to our Game Center partners,” said Don Ryan, Oberon Media Chief Operating Officer. “We decided to enter this category with Bubble Town: Party Planet because Bubble Town™ is I-play’s most successful online franchise. The new version will entice both new and old fans of the series as it brings the experience to an even higher level.”

Traditionally, Oberon Media has stuck to it’s founding principles of ‘Try before you buy’, whereby gamers can play an unlimited title for one hour, and if they enjoyed it, they’d then be asked to purchase the game. Not a bad philosophy, but in today’s microtransaction focused (and financially beneficial for developers and publishers) market, this concept seems a bit dated. Enter stage left, Oberon Media’s massive shift in their core business plan.

With this in mind, Oberon Media’s CEO Tomer Ben-Kiki stated in an interview that it pays to be cautious. Ben-Kiki admits that by getting into the game in 2003, Oberon Media was a bit late to the first generation casual games party. However, Oberon Media is still very well and alive today, perhaps owing some of the success to the overall quality of their offerings. This quality, combined with Oberon Media’s decision to white label their games, had led the company to publishing it’s products across 250 different sites.

Adding to his ‘caution is key’ statements, Ben-Kiki states that a diversified games portfolio is the wisest and financially sound option for Oberon Media. He says that Oberon Media doesn’t want to invest too early in some gaming platforms where profits can remain relatively small, and competition crowded and cutthroat.

“We want the platforms to be mature enough,” Ben-Kiki said. “Once we roll out the business model, we will use it across a lot of platforms where our games are. I see virtual goods as a very important addition. But it is not causing an earthquake in the casual space.”