Opinion: Girls, boys, we're all gamers now
DS hasn't won over women. Handheld gaming has
Who would have thought that 42 per cent of PSP owners were women? Not us, until we reported on the findings of research firm Screen Digest. Frankly, it's a startling statistic.
The same study found that 54 per cent of DS owners in this part of the world are female, which is obviously more than half, as well as more than 42 per cent (we don't just do words here at Pocket Gamer!), but is also somehow less surprising.
After all, Nintendo has repeatedly told us it has broadened the demographic with DS and its Touch Generations marketing. The PSP figure showever suggests much of this might be hot air. Among the younger generations at least, it seems gaming really is becoming gender-blind.
Indeed, the PSP's female fanbase has seemingly been achieved with a notable lack of games-for-girls malarkey. Sure, we've had the Pink PSP (though it went down like a lead balloon among girls we've spoke to, and was ultimately flogged off on the cheap) and Sony's console has some lovely stereotypically 'girl-friendly' puzzle games like Lumines and LocoRoco, but there are none of the bouncing Nintendogs or worthy Brain Training of Nintendo's dual-screened marvel.
We don't know whether to be impressed by Sony's coolness in the face of these legions of female fans (to be fair, the company has been presenting video gaming as a pursuit for all ever since the first PlayStation) or to redouble our applause at the genius of Nintendo's marketing team in making a revolution out of humdrum reality.
As for what it all means, who knows? Maybe girls just wanna have fun, after all. Well, that and a games machine they can tuck out of sight if they choose to when their less hip friends come over...