Nintendo's Brainy Strategy

Burlingame, Calif. -

"Brain Age" was all the rage in 2006. The collection of mini-games designed to stimulate your prefrontal cortex--in other words, stave off mental aging--was advertised in mainstream publications and coveted by the masses. The title, which convinced parents and other non-game-playing elders to seek out the Nintendo DS handheld console, is often credited with kick-starting the Nintendo revolution that expanded videogames beyond the core "Halo" or World of Warcraft" audience.

Two years later, videogames promising self-improvement are booming. "Brain Age" has sold 4.46 million copies in the U.S. since its launch and was the best-selling game in Europe in 2007. Some 25% of Ubisoft's revenues last year were attributed to titles like "My Spanish Coach," a game that teaches people to speak Spanish. Now there's a whole cottage industry arising around games that offer more than mere entertainment.
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We all want to be smarter, skinnier and more interesting. These games are promising players an opportunity to achieve these things with short 15-minute encounters that can fit into busy lives and offer an experience that's more engaging than flipping through textbooks. For instance, "Let's Yoga" explains yoga poses, and "Brain Quest" improves test scores.

Nintendo's (other-otc: NTDOY.PK - news - people ) goal is to get a DS into the pocket of every trouser in the world, and these educational games are becoming a cornerstone of the expansion plan. Already, the majority of educational games are played on the DS, and the device is both inexpensive--relative to devices like the iPod Touch and Xbox 360--and portable, making it an ideal platform for learning on the go.

The company is expanding its lineup of games for everyone. Last week, Nintendo announced it would bring "Personal Trainer: Cooking," which was released in Japan in 2006, to the U.S. in November. In addition to nearly 250 recipes, "Cooking" offers kitchen tips and video tutorials to ease would-be top chefs into international cuisine. Nintendo plans to follow up "Cooking" with "Personal Trainer: Math" and "Personal Trainer: Walking" in 2009.

" 'Personal Trainer' will bring in new people [to the DS] who maybe aren't interested in gaming but are interested in learning," says Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo. "Whether it's learning to cook or brushing up on math skills, I think it is opening up an entirely new audience. I also think you'll see a lot of current gamers thinking of this as a fun new application."

Tony Key, Ubisoft's senior vice president of sales and marketing, told Forbes.com last May that most people "don't feel like they have time to play games." But brain and health games, he noted, "convince them that their 20 minutes [of play] is beneficial to them." In those short gaming bursts on the subway or while waiting for dinner guests to arrive, why not learn Spanish, Key said.

That mantra has fueled the rampant expansion of Ubisoft's "My Coach" series for the DS. The series tackles everything from improving SAT scores to learning new languages to losing weight. "People tend to gravitate towards these things," says Scott Steinberg, a consultant at Embassy Multimedia. "Learning to most people is like watching paint dry. ... These games make things stick in a manner that's a lot more attention getting and a lot more fun."

Steinberg notes that educational games target consumers who wouldn't necessarily play videogames but understand the value proposition of a $30 game, compared with spending $200 or more on Rosetta Stone language software or sitting through a class.

And the games actually work. In September, a government-sponsored education group in Scotland revealed results from a 10-week study that tested the effectiveness of brain training games in the classroom. Kids in a Dundee, Scotland, primary school played "Brain Age" for 15 to 20 minutes a day throughout the 10 weeks. At the end of the study, math test scores went up an average of 10 points.

Steinberg, however, is skeptical as to whether these games are actually boosting brain power. It's not that much of a leap, he says, to assume that kids who are constantly doing math puzzles will show improvement in that subject matter. "But it is a tempting offer to improve oneself for a small amount of money," Steinberg concedes. "It's not a huge risk to try it."

Besides, just getting kids or grandparents interested in learning new skills is already worth the $30.