Nintendo has a mission to get Nintendo DS games from Brain Age to Nintendogs into the hands of, as NOA's Perrin Kaplan explains, the "clubby" game industry. That push is the Touch Generations brand, which BusinessWeek takes an in-depth look at today.
Games that, as Kaplan puts it, are "anything but a first-person-shooter," designed to be picked up and played by anyone, are branded with the Touch Generations logo, designed by internal teams in both Nintendo Co., Ltd. in Japan and Nintendo of America over here in Washington state. The brand did not originally appear on already-released games now falling under its domain, but said games will be rereleased with the branding.
"One of our goals was to target people entering the game world for the first time. It's absolutely about tapping into emerging markets," Kaplan explained to BusinessWeek, adding that Nintendo would also like to see lapsed gamers—those that may have abandoned gaming since being hooked on earlier, simpler arcade experiences—coming into the fold.
Pricing enters into it, too. "There's a dormant group of gamers out there, and it behooves us to keep enticing and exciting gamers as they age. We asked, 'How do we bring in people who have careers and families that take up their time?'" Pricing the games at $19.99 helps make them "a small part of life" instead of "a major investment", Kaplan says. (Though we can't help but notice Nintendo doesn't seem to be willing to make the lower price point ubiquitous with the brand: recently-released puzzler Magnetica, carrier of the Touch Generations brand, still goes for the standard DS price of $30-$35.)
The next entry in the Touch Generations brand is the upcoming Sudoku Gridmaster, slated for release June 26. Other future titles slated for the brand include Clubhouse Games, which will feature online play over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.