A Female Sensibility

Videogame makers have ignored half their potential market. Now they're having a second look, and altering the possibilities of gaming.

Videogame economics are such that companies are willing to hemorrhage money selling consoles like the Xbox and the Sony PlayStation at a loss to build market share, then make money selling the games. But the kind of growth that's needed to make that model work is hard to imagine unless more women are brought into the market. "Whoever takes that philosophical leap—'We're solid enough to appeal to our core, we can reach outside our demographic'—they're going to win out in the end," says Ankarino Lara, director of GameSpot.com, a popular gaming Web site. "Female gaming is the last frontier; 2006 is going to be a milestone year."

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