The Change Mariner

WSJ reports that women DO play games

GameGirlAdvance
"Where the Girls Are" article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday suggests that the game industry is waking up to the commercial possibilities of paying attention to the growing female market.

Some numbers provided by the Entertainment Software Association in the article are interesting:

26% of electronic game-players are women over 18.
21% are boys 6-17,
12% are girls 6-17,
38% are men over 18.

The article also notes that "For the holidays this year, Codemasters says it will run its most aggressive U.S. ad campaign ever, placing print ads in magazines including CosmoGirl, YM, Teen People and Working Mother. The multimillion-dollar campaign also features TV spots set to start airing next month on the WB network, during "7th Heaven," "Smallville" and other shows popular with young women and girls."

Note: Before you jump to any conclusions about ESA's numbers, check out the comments on GGA related to this posting. - N. Wada