Videogame industry hopes to harness girl power

EXCERPT FROM REUTERS ARTICLE (click on title above to link to full article)


Photo by Toru Hanal

Article By David Ward
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -

Can "High School Musical" and "Hannah Montana" finally take girl gaming to the next level?

While most of the attention of teen and tween girls Friday night will be focused on the premiere of "High School Musical 2" on Disney Channel, Disney Interactive is hoping that interest eventually bears fruit in the gaming aisles of retailers nationwide.

Beginning with "High School Musical: Making the Cut" for the Nintendo DS, Disney Interactive is bringing out four titles based on the two licensing juggernauts in the coming months.

"The demand for both the 'High School Musical' and 'Hannah Montana' games has been enormous among retailers," Disney Interactive GM Graham Hopper said. "I think the industry is starting to wake up to the fact that girls play games."

Getting that female audience into video games, especially consoles, has long been a holy grail for publishers, and there have been encouraging signs. According to the Electronic Software Assn., 38% of game players are women or girls, and a Harris Interactive poll this year found that tween girls spend up to 10 hours a week playing games, compared with 16 hours a week for tween boys.

"The industry is still dominated by the male side, but we're definitely seeing not just more female players but older gamers as well," said Beth Llewelyn, senior director of corporate communications at Nintendo of America. "We've had success with DS titles like 'Nintendogs' but also with the 'Brain' games -- 'Brain Age' and 'Big Brain Academy' -- that are definitely skewing more toward females."

The problem has been that girls and women tend to be among the most casual players, interested in easy-to-pick-up social games but not consistently shelling out $30-$50 for more complex fare.

"The real key is to get girls to begin obsessing over games the way they might obsess over a boy band or shows like 'High School Musical,'" said Jessica Chiang, marketing producer at Her Interactive, which has carved out a niche making PC games based on the "Nancy Drew" license.

Chiang said the way to achieve that passion seems to be the right license, noting, "If they already like the TV show or dolls, they tend to want to get the game." (article continues, link through title of this post)