Bodhesatva said:
Publishers in general need -- absolutely need -- to put things in to terms of demographic target audiences.
Things like Wii Sports or Mario Kart absolutely throw them for loops: that is, games that appeal to young and old, male and female. It's like the concept simply doesn't compute. They don't know where to start when they don't have a target demographic.
Just look at the difference between Catz and Dogz and Nintendo's own Nintendogs. I'm serious. The cover of Nintendogs is neutral: it has neutral colors like Red or Green and simply pictures of puppies. As a retail employee, I can tell you that this game likely split 70/30 girls/boys. Taking care of puppies does tend to be a girly thing, but honestly, everyone likes dogs. It was common to sell this game to boys, too.
Now, Catz and Dogz. The covers to these games are lined in pink, and in many of the Petz titles, there are stars and other "cute" stuff on the cover. This is the equivalent of writing the name "Doom" in blood, to let people know: "This is written in blood! It's violent and for boys!" The result? Every single copy of Petz games I ever sold was to girls. Every one. And the other result: I sold about 1/5th as many Petz games as I did Nintendogs.
Not every game has to be literally absolutely neutral when it comes to gender preferences: that's not what I'm arguing. What I'm arguing instead is that most publishers go way off in the other extreme: publishers pick a demographic, and hammer that demo as hard as they possibly can. Even if this scares off all the other demographics (a la pink stars for Dog training games, or Doom in blood a la FPS). This "Wii is for everyone" stuff is just absolutely throwing people for loops. It's for grandpas! No, it's for soccer moms! No, it's for non gamers! Wait, no, it's really for girls, who may also be non gamers!
Stop! Just stop. The correct answer is: it's for everyone. That's what Wii Sports has shown us. That's what Mario Kart has wrought. I understand why third parties are struggling so mightiliy though: it doesn't just require third parties to make different games, it requires them to approach game design differently in a much broader sense.
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