Big Fish Games, a Seattle-based casual game company whose tagline is “a new game every day,” has reeled in $83.3 million from Balderton Capital and others.

General Catalyst Partners and Salmon River Capital also contributed to the round designed to speed the global expansion plans of Big Fish, which launched a German site in 2005, a French site in 2007 and a Spanish site in March of this year.

Six-year-old Big Fish was founded by Paul Thelen, a former executive of the casual games unit of cross-town rival RealNetworks.

Mark Evans, general partner of London-based Balderton Capital will join the Big Fish board of directors.

Titles published by Big Fish, which says it distributes more than a million games per day worldwide, include Azada, Mystery Case Files, Hidden Expedition and Fairway Solitaire.

The funding comes amid news that sales of video game software in the United States slowed to a 12.6 percent year-over-year growth in August after a scorching 41 percent jump in July, according to market tracker NPD Group.

In a research note, UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter, however, attributed the slowdown to the month’s sparse software launches and argued that “underlying industry trends are still solid.”

Unlike hard-core games that require hours to master like World of Warcraft and even sports titles like Madden NFL 09, casual games can be learned and played with little preparation or practice.

Big Fish offers free games online as well as games that can be downloaded to Windows and Macintosh computers for free or for a fee.