Nintendo has long been successful at targeting a market much larger than most of the video game industry wants to acknowledge exists. They brazenly target the female game player, much to the game industry's duress at the possibility that those icky women may enter the clubhouse.
Sometimes they do a great job reaching out to women and sometimes they go horribly wrong. Nintendo has recently launched the I Play for Me site and I think it's a bit of both.
The site was created to target women as a market for the Nintendo DS handheld game system. The intention of the site is to use three famous women that the average woman can relate to and show them playing their Nintendo DS and looking glamorous and cool.
When you go to the site you see America Ferrera, Carrie Underwood, and Liv Tyler all dutifully playing games in their Nintendo DS. You will also be fascinated to find that these women each play a game that is representative of one of the three main game categories that Nintendo offers. I think that's just kismet, don't you? Or marketing, I always get those two confused.
The thing that gets me about this site is how obvious it is. I know that women play games on their Nintendo DS, but these women don't look like they're gaming. They just look so damn happy. I know that I just glow with an inner beauty when I play games, too...wait no I don't...I just look like I am actually playing a game and paying attention...but that's must just be me because all of these women are clearly having more fun than I ever could.
I do like that Nintendo is giving ladies their props and actually acknowledging them as a customer base. And they are probably right to use celebrities to reach women who don't own a Nintendo DS. I just wish it looked a little more real and a lot less cheesy.
