Gender bender

It was a two-thumbs-up review: "Full of action, adventure, great graphics and finally, a really cool heroine. It's worth the price!" Only this appraisal wasn't for a movie. The critique was for Tomb Raider II, a popular video game by Eidos. What's more, it was posted at smartgirl.com by Kim, a 13-year-old girl who is only one of an increasing number of females becoming serious about video gaming.

According to Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) statistics, 35 percent of console players and more than 43 percent of PC gamers are female. Indeed, girl gamers are already impacting a market that is expected to reach $16.9 billion in revenues in 2003, according to industry estimates.

The growing female-gaming niche is one that game publishers are taking very seriously. The overwhelming message from this year's E3 conference, in fact, was: "reach a broader audience."

Retailers of children's playthings might want to take this growing niche seriously as well, particularly in a lackluster retail environment. Including electronic games in a store's product mix (especially product that appeals to the spiraling girl-gaming population) can drive additional revenues and attract new shoppers as well. With video game publishers turning their focus to good game content, less violence and interesting and popular characters, retailers who have nixed selling electronic games in the past might want to reconsider. Today, more and more games are being published with the Entertainment Software Rating Board evaluation of "Everyone," appropriate for all audiences.

Not only are there more video game choices available, there is also more data available to assist retailers who are considering including this growing category among their offerings.

Neil Johnston, vice president of business development for Her Interactive, tells PLAYTHINGS that girls don't want action for action's sake. The company recently conducted an extensive consumer study involving 250 females aged 10 to 40 years. According to Johnston, results of the research found that, in game play, "things have to (happen for) a reason and delivering that information about the action has to happen before girls will get engaged in the action. Also, girls are interested in characters they want to emulate."

Themes and play patterns have to be relevant to girls today, Beckie Holmes, director of marketing at Knowledge Adventure, emphasizes.

Vivendi Universal Publishing's Diva Starz for Game Boy Color, for instance, uses the popular characters to initiate recognizable play patterns. Players can produce a fashion show, planning everything from moves to accessories.

This fall, Sega Sports will release Tennis 2K2 for Dreamcast, a game that easily fits into the 'emulation' category. The game will offer four-player action and a selection of 16 internationally ranked tennis players including Venus and Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Mary Pierce.

Another new introduction this fall, this one by THQ, will also offer features girls find appealing. Dark Summit, for Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox, will be a snowboarding game with a storyline, making it a mission-based game rather than a race down the mountain.

Girls also tend to favor puzzle games, says Perrin Kaplan, vice president of corporate affairs for Nintendo, adding that girls often prefer solitary gaming.

This fall, several software companies will be releasing games to fit this particular female profile. Bam! Entertainment's Hot Potato for Game Boy Advance is a color-matching puzzler in which players suit a busload of their own potatoes with delinquent alien taters. Nintendo also has some fall releases that could fit the bill, including Pikmin, a Lemmings-esque game in which the character interacts with hordes of plant-like ants to perform various tasks. Sega, meanwhile, hopes to cross all ages and genders with Super Monkey Ball. In this launch title for Nintendo's GameCube, up to four players guide a monkey (yes, in a ball) through various tilting, shifting stages. Split-screen multi-player mode allows racers to bump competitors off the track.

With many older gamers opting for the PS2, the PlayStation One, with more than 30 million units sold in North America alone, has kept its content fresh by "appealing to younger gamers and more females," says Sony Computer Entertainment America spokeswoman Tina Casalino. Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge and Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire have hit stores during the past several months. Monsters Inc. debuts in the fall. Meanwhile, for the PS2, Sony will release Frequency, which allows players to perform and remix music in a variety of genres, in November.

As with most consumers in this content-driven industry, girls will accept a game "in droves if they like the content," Johnston says.

In addition to selling video games that are female friendly, retailers looking to capture a share of the burgeoning girl-gamer market might consider some other strategies.

"I think it would be nice to see a female employee demonstrating the games for customers," Vangie Beal tells PLAYTHINGS. Beal, founder of gamegirlz.com, says demonstrations can also include typically male-marketed games.

Cross-category marketing is another merchandising approach. "Cross-category marketing is happening in the packaging right now," says Her Interactive's Johnston. He points out that every Nancy Drew game the company produces includes material that refers to the books. "The problem is that retailers are not aware of the packaged cross-promotions," he says, adding that, in many cases, a retailer's book buyer and video buyer is not the same person. "There is an extra step of in-house coordination needed," he notes.

Many video game publishers, too, are ready to help merchandise and drive traffic. One of the best ways to educate the consumer about the game is to let them try it. "At any given point we have thousands of active games in the store and we try to give retailers new stuff as often as possible, including games and banners," Nintendo's Kaplan says.

Joseph Morici, vice president of sales and marketing for Bam! Entertainment points out the company's successful merchandising partnership with retailers to promote The Powerpuff Girls for Nintendo's Game Boy Color. "We put special passwords in the games and then gave the codes to retailers. In our television spots, we promoted that the special password could only be obtained at the stores—bringing consumers to the store." Morici notes that the company had an in-store merchandising presence for four months, and consumers had a reason to shop.

While many smaller retailers may hesitate to stock video games because they cannot compete dollar for dollar with bigger stores, the small retailer does have the "service" and guidance advantage.

The video game sections of many larger toy stores are confusing and intimidating. "Finding the right game should not be frustrating," says Knowledge Adventure's Holmes, adding that it is because of the frustration that people leave the video section without buying anything.

The small retailer may be able to assist the shopper more readily. "Typically an adult will walk in and ask for the item rather than spend the time looking," notes John Girson, owner of The Learning Tree in Kansas City, Kan. It is important for shoppers be able to find what they came in for, child or adult.

And these days, an increasing number of young female shoppers are looking for electronic games. Stocking the games that appeal to them may just keep the youthful consumers coming back into the store well after they have outgrown their 'toys.'