The News Press

Computer and video game makers have a new customer on their holiday list this year: people like Jennifer Vandersteen.

The 29-year-old student at the University of Texas, San Antonio, began playing "Ms. Pac-Man" at age 6. Now she logs as many as 40 hours a week gaming, playing "Grand Theft Auto" on her PlayStation 2 and word games and puzzle games online.

Vandersteen bears little resemblance to the geeky male teens long viewed as the best customers of computer and console game makers. But today's game makers, awakened to the fact that their customer demographics have changed, are readying a wave of software, online services and marketing pitches to court their growing female audience.

Among the most visible efforts is "American Idol," a video game based on the popular TV show. Players of the game, developed by British publisher Codemasters Software Co., choose hair, wardrobe and nails for their character before advancing through a series of auditions, where they synchronize their character's dance moves with on-screen images and endure the quips of the scathing Simon Cowell.

Codemasters, known for such games as "Wartime Command" and "Pro Race Driver," focused previous advertising efforts on magazines such as "GamePro," which cater largely to males. For the holidays this year, Codemasters says it will run its most aggressive U.S. ad campaign ever, placing print ads in magazines including CosmoGirl, YM, Teen People and Working Mother. The multimillion dollar campaign also features TV spots set to start airing next month on the WB network, during "7th Heaven," "Smallville" and other shows popular with young women and girls.

There Inc., a Silicon Valley start-up that recently launched an unusual online animated community called There.com, is aiming to boost its appeal to women through an advertising partnership forged with iVillage Inc., a female-focused media company.

Game Universe, a unit of eUniverse Inc., a large online provider of subscription games, also is working with iVillage to create a new gaming "platform" aimed at women.

Microsoft Corp. is getting in on the act, too Three of the four holiday TV commercials for its xBox game machine feature female players. "That was very deliberate," says Beth Featherstone, Microsoft's senior director of marketing. "Two or three years ago, we wouldn't even have put any women or people in ads like that. There weren't enough women playing games."

That situation has changed, especially as more gaming companies offer card games, puzzles and word games, which hold more appeal for women than male-dominated fighting games.

Microsoft says at its gaming site www.zone.com, which features many games of the calmer variety, 68 percent of the 30 million registered users are women. Game Universe, whose Web sites allow users to compete for prizes playing games such as "MahJong Solitaire," says 60 percent of its 8 million registered gamers are women.