Japanese Marketers Target Gamer Girls, Moms

[Atari]

With Mother's Day fast approaching, Tokyo's subways and billboards are plastered with advertisements for chocolate and flowers. But one of the most visible ads, running every few minutes on the TV monitors inside subway cars, suggests that you give your mom Nintendo's portable videogame system and load it with software like Nintendogs, Brain Age or an interactive cookbook called 1000 Recipes. Wired has the story.

"When we come up with new project ideas, we take into consideration what the female gamer community is interested in and what DS games are selling for female users," Yano says. In Japan, anything that in sells women's magazines -- "learning, manners, food" -- can also move games off the shelves, says Keiichi.