Hand over the controller, girl gamers say

By Deborah Jian Lee

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gina Sutton takes aim and deftly strikes down several targets in a row as they pop up on the screen in front of her.

A self-described girl gamer, she traveled from her home in Virginia to spend her 16th birthday at the Nintendo World Store in New York, and she can't understand why anyone would think video games are just for boys.

"It's like saying boys play with action figures and girls play with dolls," she said as she used a Wii Zapper in a game called Link's Crossbow Training. "I'm the girl who plays with action figures."

With her nimble fingers and bubbling enthusiasm, she is one of a fast-growing posse of female gamers in the United States and elsewhere capturing the attention of video game makers -- expanding the market beyond male-appeal games like Grand Theft Auto.

Girls and young women are a "pot of gold" for the industry, said George VanHorn, senior analyst at market research firm IBISWorld. "The gaming industry has market characteristics that many would die for."

According to IBISWorld, 38 percent of U.S. gamers are female, up from 33 percent in just five years.

From January through August of 2008 females ages 18 to 45 made up 28 percent of the total industry revenue, ranking second to males ages 18 to 45, who made up 37 percent.

Software makers have churned out a throng of non-violent, easy-to-play games in a bid to capture so-called casual gamers -- those who don't spend a lot of time on games -- and women make up a big part of that target audience.

Companies have also snapped up smaller online game makers. Last year, Walt Disney Co bought Club Penguin, which appeals to girls and boys aged 6 to 14. In 2005, Viacom Inc bought Neopets Inc.

At the Nintendo World Store in New York this month, Fatima Gomez, 8, bounced from one game to the next, looking for short, easy ones and never spending long on one.

She likes Bratz, Disney Princess and Hannah Montana and she doesn't like shooting games, said Oscar Gomez, her father, who brought his family from Mexico City on vacation.

"She doesn't care if she wins or not. It's different with this guy," he said, pointing to his son. "They like to win."

HORSING AROUND

Females accounted for 21 percent of the industry's total sales growth last year, according to Anita Frazier, a video game industry analyst from the research firm NPD Group.

Frazier said many more females were playing than were showing up in these statistics. "The challenge is not to get them to play, but to get them to spend more of their time and money on games."