Mario All Grown Up?

Reggie Fils-Aime, frequent spokesperson for Nintendo, has a piece extolling the way in which Nintendo will disrupt the videogaming market with the release of the Revolution. His editorial uses the movie industry as a comparison, and likens the systems of Sony and Microsoft to 'flops'. From the article: "Nintendo's counterpunch is disruption. We've determined that the videogame market is ripe for revival--and we're looking to make it happen by reaching out to the millions of players still on the sidelines, including those over the age of 35. Early moves have been promising. Nintendogs, a game that allows people to train virtual puppies, has doubled the typical percentage of female purchasers, selling 1.5 million copies in about four months. Not bad, given that Nintendo DS hardware is in 4 million hands." Yeah, it's just more advertising claptrap, but the levels of hyperbole they're reaching is sort of breathtaking to behold.

Comments

Re:Claptrap?

[jclast]

Nintendogs is a pretty ideal solution for those of who currently live in an apartment complex that doesn't allow large pets.

My wife and I have already saved 2 cats (the maximum allowed by our landlord), but large dogs (which seems to be all the local Humane Society has) are out of the question. Even if they weren't disallowed by our lease, I don't think it would be a very nice life to make that dog live in a one bedroom apartment with no yard.

Not Yah, but stick head in sand

[WillAffleckUW]

I don't think it's that women find games too complex, I think it's that they find currently offered games:

1. too boring (FPS bang bang bleed bleed no challenge after first time);
2. too involved (takes 30 minutes before it really kicks in, hard to pause, save takes forever);
3. not group-oriented (sure, you can battle faceless opponents worldwide via wifi, but can you play with your neighbors or coworkers at lunch?);
4. too action-oriented not cooperative.

Many studies have shown that most games fail on those counts for women and girls. And last time I checked, they had lots of disposable income to spend on that, instead of on the latest Beach Volleyball game.