Just when Sega Enterprises Ltd says it’s given up on women as a market for games, Albuquerque, New Mexico-based American Laser Games Inc has announced McKenzie & Co, the first title from its Games For Her division, established last November. The company describes the game as a live action interactive social adventure, set in an American high school, in which the player is confronted with a series of everyday social and moral dilemmas about boys, friends, school and family. The game, which comes on four disks, is due for launch in October, costing $65. The division was established after a survey of 2,000 eight to 14 year-old girls was conducted to find out what they wanted from computer games. Nearly 40% felt there should be more games specifically for girls. The top six aspects identified as the fun elements in a game specifically for girls were cute guys, dating, shopping, talking on the telephone and music, the firm said. Says Gail Rubin, public relations director at Games For Her, With 50% of the population making up less than 15% of the game-playing market, there is room for considerable growth. This figure tallies with results of a study Sega carried out last summer when it found only 13% of girls played video games regularly, against 50% of boys. But rather than thinking this was a market that would grow, Noel Dardis, marketing manager for Sega Europe says Our conclusion was girls were unlikely to be influenced by our advertising. And at the moment Sega has no plans to develop special games for girls, concentrating instead on its core business. However, Games For Her is now working on a new game that explores the career world and is working with publisher Daniel Weiss & Associates, which packages the Sweet Valley High books, to make McKenzie & Co into a book series and develop CD-ROM software based on books. The two are setting up a worldwide Her Online service in August so girls have an electronic forum for exchanging pen-pals, chatting with their favourite authors and playing games with players around the world.
