Seeking Wisdom from the Wii-Maker

Ubisoft and other video game outfits are asking the industry leader for help in wooing casual gamers. Nintendo's advice? Keep it simple

by Kenji Hall

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In late December last year, two senior executives from video game company Ubisoft made a rare pilgrimage to Kyoto. Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoet had flown in from the company's headquarters on the outskirts of Paris, and Montreal studio chief Yannis Mallat had come from Canada. This was no sightseeing trip to take in the temples and kyoryori haute cuisine of Japan's ancient capital. They had come to learn from Nintendo (NTDOY) the art of making video games for the mainstream.

Hascoet and Mallat had been personally invited by Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata. Only a month before, Iwata had dropped in on Ubisoft's San Francisco office to see a game being developed for Nintendo's portable DS game consoles. Code-named "Pasta Letter," it tested a person's vocabulary. The game was hardly in the same league as Nintendo's Mario and Pokemon games, but Iwata instantly recognized a word game's potential to attract a mass-market audience, and he offered to help.

That's how the two Frenchmen found themselves spending Christmas last year at Nintendo's headquarters. For the occasion, Nintendo trotted out the team that created Brain Age, a mind-training math and puzzle game that has sold close to 10 million copies globally since its launch in May, 2005. The Japanese developers likened the game to a grand buffet in a kitchen with an entryway that was too narrow. Translation: It was too hard for ordinary adults who weren't gamers. Back at home, Hascoet and Mallat made a tough call to start from scratch. "That kind of insight was really valuable in the final product we created," says Tony Key, Ubisoft vice-president and head of U.S. marketing.

Waiting for Wii Fit

The game, which went on sale Nov. 6 as My Word Coach, marks a shift at Ubisoft to reach beyond the 18-to-34-year-old males who typically buy and play video games. My Word Coach is one of Ubisoft's first games since it set up a division in May to develop a whole line of so-called casual games. On Nov. 5, Ubisoft also acquired Japan's Digital Kids to tap into the company's specialty in mass-market games.

Never before has the $30 billion video game industry been so eager to attract casual gamers. In recent months, Redwood City (Calif.)-based Electronic Arts (ERTS), Los Angeles-based Vivendi Games, and Britain's Eidos have formed their own casual gaming units. Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT) are also racing to load up on easy-to-play arcade games, and Sony recently announced two titles—MyStylist, a wardrobe organizer, and Talkman Travel, which acts as both map guide and trip recorder—in an attempt to make its PlayStation Portable console more appealing to ordinary consumers.

But if you're looking for the movement's most influential proselytizer, many industry execs will point to Nintendo. The success of the portable DS and Wii has contributed to Nintendo's credibility and made it a profit juggernaut. On Oct. 25 the company said first-half profits nearly tripled from the previous year, and it revised full-year operating earnings forecasts upward to $3.7 billion, an 86% gain from last year. Analysts expect Nintendo's new fitness game, Wii Fit, which goes on sale in Japan on Dec. 1 and in the U.S. and Europe early next year, to give Nintendo's already stellar profits another boost. The game relies on a wireless, pressure-sensitive mat that players stand on to mimic ski-jumping and yoga poses.