advertisement

E3 '07: Ubisoft Imagines games for girls

By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UKPosted Jul 13, 2007 1:21 pm PT

French publisher targets young girls with games about fashion design, figure skating, and veterinary medicine.

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--Rayman Raving Rabbids publisher Ubisoft is launching a new game brand called Imagine targeted at girls aged 6-14 years old. The company conducted "extensive lifestyle research" to target the things that girls that age were most interested in, and have made a series of DS games to match the youngsters' hobbies and interests.

The first games in the Imagine line will be coming in October 2007, Imagine Fashion Designer, Imagine Animal Doctor, Imagine Babyz, and Imagine Master Chef. The first title, Fashion Designer, will cast gamers as a hip Manhattan designer and have them run a fashion business, including creating their own clothes, directing fashion shoots, and sharing designs online with other gamers.

In sim game Animal Doctor, gamers play the role of a veterinarian, and diagnose and treat a variety of animals, add new facilities, and improve and expand the hospital. Master Chef is a recipe game a la Cooking Mama, where gamers will cook a variety of virtual dishes from across the world, and use the DS stylus to prepare, stir, and cook different ingredients. There will also be food-related minigames including kitchen challenges and cooking quizzes.

Babyz is the latest in Ubisoft's line of improperly pluralized game titles, following Catz, Dogz, and Ponyz. Babyz is a sim game where gamers have to raise and look after a newborn baby through all stages of development. The title will feature an online component which will allow people to swap tips and clothes for their little darlings.

In early 2008 Figure Skater will be joining the lineup. Players will take on the role of a female figure skater in the management sim, and her time needs to be managed so that she has enough training, schooling, and friends. Gamers use the DS stylus to control the figure skater's jumps, spins and combos while she's performing in competitions on the ice.

Ubisoft's senior marketing director, Helene Juguet, commented, "Our consumer research revealed that the young girls' market has been relatively overlooked. We are happy to introduce a variety of titles relevant to what girls in this age group have indicated they are most interested in."

81 Comments

  • The_AI

    Posted Mar 29, 2008 6:45 am PT

    To quote the Rolling Stone review of Bob Dylan's Self Portrait album,
    "What is this sh**?"

  • maryjane_67

    Posted Oct 4, 2007 1:32 am PT

    What about, 'Don't Eat and People Will Love You' and 'You'll Only be Attractive if You Shirt Blinds Everyone with Cleavage' and 'There is No Such Thing as "Too Short" When it Comes to Skirts' Oh yeah and just a note, they hopefully didn't implement being able to accidentally drop the baby or chuck it across the bottom screen into the top screen...It might be for kids who like babies, but Ubisoft probably didn't mean for people who like their babies with a dash of salt and pepper.
    [ that was considerably awful... ]

    I played with my little ponies and littlest petshop and got my friends into role-playing (introduced to gaming at a very young age...Mom's a gamer) and we role-played Star Wars and made houses out of leaves and ran through our neighbor's corn field and into the woods to see if there were homeless people and other fun outside activities.

    Uh and I was playing Resident Evil when I was 12. Notably at the same time, I had Petz installed on the computer, but I was exposed to all types of games, mostly RPG's, a'cos that's what my mom played. and i got a n64 and fell in love with mario, 007, and zelda. i think it's great for these games to be made, there are a lot of girls who are into these interests and there is NOTHING wrong with that, but hopefully parents aren't going to think that they shouldn't let them play something else that's not blatantly designated for their little girl. True, they need to develop and grow up to be a woman, but lord have mercy they shouldn't be kept sheltered from other games because they aren't screaming, "GIRLS LOOK HERE" on the cover.

  • CyphenX

    Posted Jul 17, 2007 6:27 pm PT

    so they're basically making a hi-res tamogochi?

  • sherden

    Posted Jul 17, 2007 10:23 am PT

    aaahhh, a baby-raising game, laaaaaaame. I bet they'll include all there is to it, specially the middle-of-the-night diaper change, and a mini game called pee-head shot or some stuff like that. Yeah, a great hit is coming =D

  • GreenC4T

    Posted Jul 17, 2007 9:54 am PT

    As I girl I was somewhat offended. But if you really think about this, these types of games are being directed for the young girls, children if you will. I mean you go to a toy shop like Toys R Us or KB Toys what type of toys do you see being directed to girls? Little baby toys, plastic food, and little princess stuff. So, now they want to include this demographic into the gaming world and start them here. Sure most of us girls, growing up in the NES era, we didn't have that and we played Mario, Ninja Gaiden, Punch Out, etc. And now in our 20s we are trying to compete against the boys in FPS, racing games, and other action games.

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Jul 17, 2007 8:40 am PT

    Girls want deeper story lines, and deeper characters, and they want RPG's and adventures that are not about killing in order to further the story, and that is what a lot of male gamers want as well. In fact, I believe PC gaming needs these type of titles to differentiate it's self from the consoles and also so it can survive as a gaming format in the next 2 years or so!

  • veni-vidi-vici

    Posted Jul 17, 2007 3:09 am PT

    Uh, caring for babies with a stylus... as a game...weird.

  • ultrazone

    Posted Jul 16, 2007 7:44 pm PT

    further brainwashing women to do my laundry for years to come... but seriously, if i could play with barbies back when i was 6, why can't they play with master chiefs?

  • Striker426

    Posted Jul 16, 2007 2:47 pm PT

    LOL!!! Carrie Gouskos must be lovin' this news!

  • LouieV13

    Posted Jul 16, 2007 12:34 pm PT

    Wheres Imagine House cleener?

  • maxmax1234

    Posted Jul 16, 2007 6:25 am PT

    ooh. i get it

  • aaron5829

    Posted Jul 15, 2007 8:29 pm PT

    huh ?? oh ok.. cool... good luck to ya... Ubi.

  • Ghaz013

    Posted Jul 15, 2007 1:03 pm PT

    Since you were young, whether it be male or female, you were told whats feminine and masculine. If your a guy you played w/ GI JOE and if you tried playing w/ Barbie most likely your parents took it away and gave you back GI JOE. If you are a girl you played w/ Barbie. Tried to play w/ GI JOE and your parents would give Barbie back. Society has males/females set into a certain 'mindset' where you must do masculine/feminine things, depending on your sex. These games just add to that 'mindset'. I hope these games fail miserably to teach developers that they cant continue w/ these sexist stereotypes associated w/ men and women, boys/girls. W

  • acej2000

    Posted Jul 15, 2007 9:11 am PT

    good luck with that.

  • SpazH3d

    Posted Jul 15, 2007 7:30 am PT

    Great. Ubisoft is teaching little girls how to play games. The chance of getting gaming girfriends is growing! :-o

  • 2p4eva

    Posted Jul 15, 2007 4:39 am PT

    I think this is a great idea. The subject matter might seem stupid but i guess for girls of that age range it's perfect. However it's going to be a lot harder to grab girls from the teen stage.

  • Dreski83

    Posted Jul 15, 2007 12:45 am PT

    as much as I desire to chuckle at this concept, it makes total sense. a bit degrating in sense, but imagine what the suits say when they try to figure the next big game for boys... ninjas, pirates, or robots... what else we got?!

  • HALOISTHEBEST26

    Posted Jul 15, 2007 12:10 am PT

    pikastar i understand what your saying they are stereotyping but stereotype are actually based on truth (believe it or not) but i have been owned by girls on gears of war they can play pretty good but most girls like cooking (in a game) and love to help animals and things like that but i can see your point

  • Poshkidney

    Posted Jul 14, 2007 11:50 pm PT

    If you know my sister these ort of games would be staying on the shelf but the final fantasy's would be going some where.

  • jesus_knight

    Posted Jul 14, 2007 5:06 pm PT

    i think it could be a good idead if the industry wants to grow

Babyz Quick Links

Summary | Reviews | News | Answers | Hints & Cheats | Forum

advertisement
Babyz

Game Stats

  • Rank:
    11,128 of 76,690
    (down by 1,040)
    PC Rank:
    3,811 of 12,544
    Tracking:
    36 Track It»
    Wishlists:
    12 Wish It»
  • Player Reviews:
    1
    Player Ratings:
    15
    Users Now Playing:
    10
  • Top 5 User Tags:
    1. babyz
    2. crap
    3. mindscape
Full Game Details »Close

Games you may like…

Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.

See More Similar Games
advertisement