TOKYO (Reuters) - Respect for the Aged Day in Japan is not typically a cash cow for gamemaker Nintendo Co. Ltd. <7974.OS>, but this year a bump in sales of its DS portable game machines was proof enough that electronic games are attracting a broader range of players.
The DS machines were purchased for older family members, so they could play games designed to strengthen brain power.
One so-called brain-training game offers three brief tests that might measure memory, calculation, or quick-response skills to indicate how close the player's brain is to the "ideal age" of 20.
The game, developed under the guidance of a brain imaging professor, claims to make players smarter and their brains younger with just a few minutes of daily training.
"The DS brain-training game is definitely one of our best sellers," said Nobutoshi Abe, who heads the game section for Japanese electronics retailer Bic Camera's flagship store in Yurakucho, a Tokyo business district.
"A lot of older women buy the game. They buy the DS player just so they can play," Abe said.
Next to the already popular racing, adventure and role-playing games, a new category is appearing in stores, hoping to catch the eye of young women, older businessmen, novices, or those who have not played since Super Mario Brothers caused a sensation more than 20 years ago.
Since the launch in May, Nintendo has sold over 700,000 copies of the Japanese game, whose title roughly translates as "DS Training to Strengthen Your Brain." There are high hopes next year for an overseas English version.
Sega <6460.T>, which makes the same game for Sony Corp.'s <6758.T> Playstation Portable, sold nearly 72,000 copies in the first 10 days of its launch in Japan in late October, according to a monthly study by Enterbrain, which publishes leading Japanese industry weekly Famitsu.
"The key phrase for everybody in this industry at this moment is actually grow the industry as opposed to try and come up with the next million-seller hit for consoles, because that's been done and it's not expanding the market pie," said Hiroshi Kamide, a Tokyo-based game analyst for KBC Securities.
FIGHTING A SATURATED MARKET
The $25 billion global game industry is still growing, helped in large part by the popularity of PC and mobile games. But the console market itself has been growing only in the low-single digits, said Kamide.
The situation is of particular concern in Japan, where the market, after peaking in 2001, has been in decline.
