I'll be recording a podcast in New York Tomorrow at the Nintendo World Store
I'll be recording a podcast for Nintendo tomorrow (Sunday, August 28, 2005) at the Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Plaza. The event is called Nintendo's Dog Days of Summer: Girls' Gaming Event and naturally, my 9-year old daughter is coming with me. The focus is on non-competitive games, which have a huge potential market.
In particular, all eyes are on a new game for the Nintendo DS called Nintendogs. The idea is that you buy a puppy, train it, feed it, walk it, play with it, and in general spend as much time with it as you would with a real dog. The graphics are good, and the appeal is obvious just spending a few minutes with it.
The coolest feature is by far "bark mode". In this mode the wi-fi turns on and when you come close to another unit in bark mode, it barks at you. When you flip it up, you can interact with the other players' dogs in this virtual dog park. Interestingly, each player gets a unique experience in this mode. Players will each experience the group of dogs in a different way. In this way, everyone gets to control the group.
This idea is vastly different from first-person shooter games where everyone experiences the grid from their point of view. The emphasis is on the quality of individual experience with the dogs, not on any kind of competitive activity.
Not surprisingly, this kind of game goes over big in Japan. Nintendogs has sold over 700,000 copies in Japan, and stores in the US were sold out on August 22nd when it first hit the shelves.
You may not realize it but girl gamers account for about 44% of habitual video game players. The conclusion is that there's a huge largely untapped market for games where the focus is on the experience, not on scores and competitions.
Anyway, this is the second project I've done for Nintendo, and I'm really excited about it. In the podcast I'll be conducting interviews with gamers, Nintendo Trendspotters, and executives, and it will feature some new music that I composed just for the project as well.
So if you're a New Yawkah and are looking for something to do Sunday afternoon from 2 to 4, come hang out with me at the Nintendo World Store, 10 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.