Sunday, October 16, 2005

New York Times Kameo, an action-adventure, and more family-oriented, game for the new Xbox 360, is aimed at young teens, including girls.

Microsoft hopes to win women over with new Xbox

Company touts console as a DVD, music, photo machine to help gamers convince wife or mom.

By Matt Richtel / New York Times

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Note to hard-core video game players: Microsoft says it is aiming for your mothers and wives.

In the coming weeks, Microsoft plans to introduce a marketing campaign to expand the appeal of the new Xbox 360 game console beyond the young men who are the Xbox's biggest fans.

Microsoft hopes to win a bigger share of the market from the PlayStation 2, the top-selling console made by Sony, by promoting a more family-friendly image for the new Xbox, which will be in stores starting Nov. 22.

In 2001, when Microsoft introduced the first Xbox, it focused heavily on hard-core gamers, typically males age 17 to 24 , who wanted a high-end machine with more sophisticated graphics and more complex game functions than other consoles. The PlayStation and the Nintendo GameCube, meanwhile, put more emphasis on reaching the mainstream market, analysts said.

This time, Microsoft is planning a wider attack. Brochures going out to major retailers like Best Buy prominently describe the 360's ability to double as a DVD player, play music from an MP3 player through a television's speakers and even display digital photos on a TV. Its game functions, while impressive, are only part of the message.

The point, said Bill Nielsen, who oversees marketing for the Xbox 360, is to help a game player convince the women in the family that "this is for you, too, not just for me to play Madden," referring to the John Madden football game. The brochure even says, "Here are some things you might want to tell your wife this thing does."

Over Labor Day weekend, Microsoft and Pepsi kicked off a radio promotion to give away 9,000 Xbox 360's by Nov. 22. Nielsen said those ads were meant to reach not just hard-core gamers, but also their mothers.

The Pepsi promotion "also hits moms," Nielsen said, because "moms make a lot of the final decisions" on whether the family buys a new game console.

Microsoft will also try to showcase more family-oriented games that can be played on the 360. The Xbox has long depended on the popularity of games like Halo, the hit shooting game, for console sales. But with the new machine, it will promote games like Kameo, an action-adventure game, for younger teenagers, including girls.