If they want to keep on playing, they have to buy the full version of the game for about $20. Customers download its games from the PlayFirst or other casual games Web sites and can play them for 30 to 60 minutes. Like many companies in the burgeoning casual games space, San Francisco-based PlayFirst has built a business around the try-before-you-buy business model. So when game developer PlayFirst decided last month to offer a free, non-expiring version of the latest edition of a franchise that has seen 200 million downloads, it was something of a bold move. “Diner Dash” is something like the “Halo” of the online casual games market.
