Working with developer Posit Science, AAA is offering a new brain training game program called DriveSharp, which is pretty much the same thing as InSight — the package of brain games that includes Jewel Diver. DriveSharp still has Jewel Diver, but it's also got another game called Road Tour that tests and allegedly improves your peripheral vision. If you're a AAA member, you can get a discount on the $139 price tag.

Posit Science claims that its programs have been proven to reduce the risk of car crashes by 50%. The skills that their games like Jewel Diver cultivate — focus, reaction time, memory, visual processing speed and multi-object tracking — can help drivers young and old avoid traffic accidents and improve stopping distance by up to 22 feet at 55 miles per hour, according to AAA's press release.

Jewel Diver may still not be that much to look at and I'm not really thrilled about dropping $139 on a piece of software that won't immediately lower my monthly car insurance rate. But Posit's deal with AAA is one step closer to the day when I can justify buying video games as an investment. I count that as a win.

You can find AAA's press release here and a demo of Jewel Diver here.

SF Gate reports that a driver who played used the "brain-training software" game called Jewel Diver narrowly avoided a car accident when another driver ran a red light at intersection. The driver, W. Larocca, says:

"I was thinking it was just like the (software) game," he said, remembering his near-miss. "I was looking straight ahead - I didn't expect this car on the left. I can't prove it, but I'm 100 percent convinced that if I hadn't taken the course, I would have been hit."

Jewel Diver is one of five "exercises" in a program called InSight, developed by Posit. The game asks players to focus on red jewels that are then hidden behind swimming fish. The goal is to keep your eye on the fish hiding the gems while a bunch of other identical fish swim around a coral reef. When the fish stop, the player has to click on the fish that contain the jewels.

Posit says the game helps users improve visual processing, like divided attention and peripheral vision. According to SF Gate's article, Allstate is using the program with its over-50 drivers as an experiment. If the program shows results, Assistant Vice President in Research and Marketing Tom Warden says, they might use high scores in the software as a way to lower insurance premiums.

The insurance company is still sifting through data from the experiment, which began in October, and is looking at ways to use the software. If it's shown to work with young people, for example, Allstate could use Posit to appeal to different age groups, Warden said.

I played the demo on Posit's site. It's actually way harder than I thought it'd be and it's pretty fun. Could use some better sound effects, though...

Software designed to make older drivers sharper [SF Gate]

Empire Interactive has signed a multi-year deal with the intelligence-fostering American Mensa organization to develop handheld, PC, and console titles based on the Mensa license. Judging by the Mensa organizations stated goals, the deal will most likely result in a handful of brain training and puzzle titles somewhere down the line.

"American Mensa is very selective about the companies we partner with, so we are especially pleased to have this new relationship with Empire Interactive," said Dr. John Sheehan, Development Officer of American Mensa. "One of Mensa's primary goals is to foster intelligence, and we are confident that with Empire's unquestioned reputation for excellence, we will move closer to achieving that goal."

A similar deal has also been made with British Mensa, which is essentially the evil version of Mensa that American Mensa members will eventually have to team up against in order to ensure the safety of the planet.

With brain training games being old hat, Japan is craving for something new. Enter comedy training games. Ha. Developer Skip has created Arukime DS, a two to four player game. In fact, it's not possible to play the game alone! (Well, you can play it alone, but you'll need two DSes.) A question is posed, and the other players write funny or witty answers in a certain time limit. Gut busting responses are then selected, and the funniest ones get points in the form of cushions. Game is out in Japan mid-July. Sounds hilarious. Brian Ashcraft

People Playing It [Tsutaya via Famitsu]

How 2006! Last year, brain games were all the rage. Or the year before that for Japan. Don't tell Ubisoft, though! The publisher is bringing Sega's Atama Scan ("Brain Scan") to the West, redubbing it Mind Quiz: Your Brain Coach. Sega is no stranger to brain games, making some of the first ones so many moons ago. Info about the Ubisoft import:

Moreover "Mind Quiz" is different from other Brain-related software in below 2 points.

• It does not depend on academic ability
• It was developed based on Scientific Research

I thought all of brain games were based on "Scientific Research," and last I checked, the ability to pronounce "blue" does not depend on academics. Brian Ashcraft

Ubi Releases Sega Brain Game [Sega Nerds]

Using motion controls is so 2006. Using your brain to dictate game play is teh future. Australian star-up Emotiv created a mind-reading game controller prototype called Project Epoc that's getting over a million dollars in funding from the Australian government. From Emotiv's website:

Project Epoc is a headset that uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals naturally produced by the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expression. It connects wirelessly with all game platforms from consoles to PCs. Project Epoc now makes it possible for games to be controlled and influenced by the player's mind.

Engaging, immersive, and nuanced, Emotiv-inspired game-play will be like nothing ever seen before.

Jacking into the Matrix! We should really strap on Plunkett's head to see what the hell happens. Luke, thoughts? Brian Ashcraft

Brain Controller [Emotiv via Med Gadget]

What better way to promote a game than by with a brain suspended in swirling white crap? Wired's Chris Kohler shows this Brain Age Nintendo sent him. Odd. But Cool. In an odd way. Brian Ashcraft

Brain Globe [Game|Life via GayGamer]

Quiz time: The above picture shows a taxi. Each red dot represents an available passenger seat. Four company employees are about to get in the taxi. In ranking of superiority, where does the most important person sit?

Brain training games are old hat. Next up, Nintendo has rolled out "Common Sense DS Adult Training." The game teaches manners for business and ceremonial occasions, economic terms and IT words. So, tell me, my far mannered readers, what is the answer to the above question?

More Here [Game Watch]

I'm learning English. Well, I think I am, or rather, I suppose I am. With the spate of "brain games" released for the Nintendo DS, also came the inevitable English game. Called Eigo ga Nigatena Otona no DS Training: Eigo Zuke ("DS Training for Adults Who are Bad at English"), the game is TOEIC-approved and was released this past January, but Mrs. Bashcraft didn't decide she wanted to learn English until yesterday.

For one reason or another, Japanese people feel compelled to learn English. Some say the "English fad" has faded, but Eigo Zuke has been a huge seller. Japan-centric site Mutant Frog Travelogue has an excellent post up tracking the state of the billion dollar English business in Japan.

If you are familiar with Brain Age, then Eigo Zuke's layout shouldn't come as a surprise. It's almost exactly the same, minus the floating head of Prof. Kawashima. The misses had a crack at it all day yesterday, and she said it was challenging. She scored high enough to leave the country, but only on vacation. For short periods of time. Good for her.

So, I decided to take a look at it. Eigo Zuke focuses on reading, listening, spelling, pronunciation, etc. I raced through and *duh* pwned the crap outta it. The handwriting recognition was most impressive. The original brain age had excellent Japanese handwriting recognition, but Brain Age's sometimes felt a bit wonky. That's not the case with Eigo Zuke. The irony.

Can someone learn English via the DS? Any software that can decipher my serial killer scrawl no problemo gives hope. Brian Ashcraft

To promote its upcoming brain game Nohryoku Trainer Portable 2, Sega sent out girls in miniskirts (Sega miniskirts) with PSPs chained to their necks. The game Nohryoku Trainer Portable was a big PSP hit in Japan and is not a rip-off of Nintendo's brain game as the Sega title was originally developed by Prof. Kawashima.

Joining the Sega girls in this Akihabara event was the game's mascot, the "E~tto Man." His name refers to the sound Japanese make when thinking "eto," which corresponds to the English sound "uh." So, his name is the Uh-Man. The Uh-Man wore a giant samurai brain hat and tested people's intelligence. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Game Drops June 22 [Game Watch]

Earlier this week, we reported on the slew of Brain Age knock-offs headed our way. Barry O'Neill, CEO of the Dublin-based Upstart Games, emailed us to let us know his company had been "sitting on" a cell phone brain game that predates Brain Age by about two years. Originally called Right Brain Paradise, the game was released by G-mode in Japan. Upstart's English version is titled IQ Academy and will be on in major US and European carries this July. We sent questions to Mr. O'Neill, regarding the upcoming title, the brain game craze and skiing in Nintendo's wake.

The game was released back in Japan in 2003, making it one of the first brain games. Why was the title developed?

G-mode has a strong casual and female gaming audience, and I know that they conduct extensive research amongst their subscribers to ensure that their product development strategy matches the audience profile. The first game in the series was released as Right Brain Paradise in March 03 on i-Mode.

Why has Upstart waited so long to launch the game?

It's been a matter of timing in relation to what mobile carrier requirements are. We've been securing releases for Japanese games in international markets for almost three years now. Generally the trend (and the devices) in Japan is one to two years ahead of the west. Casual and "one button" games have been big sellers in Japan for the last three or four years, but only in the last six to twelve months have we seen active interest in these titles for western distribution. Some titles that have done well for us in the past have been "classic" titles - these we're actually well out of date in the Japanese market by the time they were peaking in the West.

What's the relationship between G-mode and Upstart?

Upstart has been working with G-mode distributing titles such as Topolon, and their Sudoku title (branded as Vodafone Sudoku) for some time. With G-mode, and with our other Japanese partners such as FromSoftware and SCEJ, the role is deeper that a typical distributor/publisher relationship. There's a significant investment made by us in localizing, culturalizing and then porting the games to Western handsets. Im most cases we have to literally rebuild the entire game from the ground up.

Did G-mode approach Upstart or vice versa?

We'd been aware of each other for some time, and cemented a relationship early last year. Upstart is very active in the Japanese market, and G-mode has had good traction in the west. The very first Vodafone live! handset launched in Europe included a pre-installed G-mode title. Upstart's knowledge of the Japanese market or specifically, transitioning games from the Japanese market to western markets meant that there was good fit between the companies, especially when it came to getting G-mode titles out in the US.

Did G-mode encourage Upstart to hold the game?

As Japan's no.1 mobile games publisher, G-mode has a huge library of titles spanning many genres. We zeroed in on the casual titles at an early stage, Sudoku was an obvious one and we successfully launched that and Topolon in January. Amongst the other titles which we knew were superb, but a little early for Western markets was the "Left Brain Paradise" range, which had sold almost 2M units since launch. This had been put in front of a number of western carriers, but at that time carries seemed to be more focused on replicating the console experience on mobile. The launch of the Nintendo's brian titles in the west coincided with a growing realization amongst carriers that simpler games were needed to break through the "hardcore" market, and extend the reach of mobile games to regular non-gaming consumers.

What are the differences between the original version and IQ Academy?

The first volume of IQ Academy has a range of challenges selected from Volumes one and two of Left Brain Paradise. There's a number of Kanji based challenges in the original LBP titles that clearly wouldn't translate to western markets. IQ Academy is essentially a new game.

How will launching the game around Brain Age improve downloads?

We're expecting strong downloads from the title. Carrier enthusiasm and welcome for the title has been hugely encouraging. We believe we're first to market with mobile title of this type, and leading the market can result in category ownership - look at Jamdat's success with Jamdat Bowling, Gameloft's dominance of the action adventure genre, and to a limited extent our first successes with the US launch of Konami's Frogger on mobile.

Do you find Nintendo's success encouraging?

Yes. Very. Definitely there's a "Halo-effect" resulting from Nintendo's title, and therefore the interest in this type of title has grown significantly from a carrier perspective. Consumer awareness has also increased, especially amongst an older non-gamer audience is much higher.

Do the Brain Age comparisons bother you?

It doesn't bother us too much, the games have different target devices, and we're happy that we can bring this type of game to a very wide mobile audience. It riles me a bit if an assumption is made that we're ripping off an idea - I don't know if anyone can claim a first here. I remember playing shareware IQ games on the Amiga in the 80's.

How can IQ Academy separate itself from the upcoming flood of knock-off brain titles?

Being first to market on mobile will help. We've additional volumes lined up for future release, and we expect that this type of title will come into its own on mobile. After all there's a couple of billion mobile phones out there, so the potential reach is huge. Additionally we'll implementing a feature on Sprint in the US called game lobby, whereby overall scores and also individual scores for each task set will be ranked by player. You'll be able to challenge your friends or compare with the global player list. This adds a wider competitive experience to the game.

In a nutshell, what's cool about the game?

I think the really intuitive control mechanism works very well. Each question or task posed to you has up to four possible answers. Its a simple matter of pressing a direction key to select the answer. It makes for really fast paced play, which is essential to build your IQ score. The challenges range from simple "true/false" scenarios, to counting, time telling, and spatial challenges. I especially like the task in the volume two where you have count how much money you have by adding up the change presented on screen at a glance of the coins.

How are players rated?

Accuracy and speed are the basic measurements for internal scoring, but each challenge is weighted, and an overall score is determined. This is given to the player, along with a level achievement ranking such as "Pre-school", "University", "Professor" etc. Sadly I'm still at kindergarten level...

Are brain games here to stay? Or is this just a fad?

Definitely here to stay but I'd say we'll see a fad phase over the next 12 months and then a stable level of activity. I think we have a critical mass of people who aren't hardcore gamers, but are aware and accepting of video games now, however the content is only just starting to catch up. Look at Sony's successes with titles like SingStar and Buzz. Not everyone wants to play first-person action titles, or RPGs. As gamers have gotten older, and the gender divide more balanced the core games industry hasn't really responded with the breadth of content that other entertainment media such as film would have. The popularity of online game services on Yahoo and MSN largely lies with this casual demographic, and there is a lot to be learned from this example.

Brain games on a console: What do you think?

I think that for the audience which these games will most appeal to, its not really a runner. Consoles often use the main family screen, have a complicated controller and require something of a boot up, so are better suited to longer solitary (online or offline) gaming sessions. One thing that could work though would be a local multiplayer brain game, like Buzz, where players could compete with multiple custom controllers.

Why are brain games popular?

They're accessible to a wide audience, have a gradual learning curve and especially in Nintendo's case with the pen input, but also with the familiarity of the mobile phone, they have an interface known to most people. Of course people love to test themselves too. The appeal is similar to that of an IQ test, or a crossword or Sudoku. In some ways with regular games, it's "How good am I at that?" With brain games, it's more "How good am I?"

More Here [Upstart Games]

Being a kid in Japan isn't easy. There are loads of after school activities like cram school. No wonder children want to sneak in some gaming on the sly. Some kids do one better and spend a good chunk of their day playing video games. According to Fukushima Prefecture, doing so means lower test scores.

In a standardized tests for fifth graders and sophomores in Junior High, those that spend 3 hours of their day gaming did worse. How much worse? Their scores were ten points lower than students that spent that time memorizing countless kanji characters. Those test scores might be low, but their high scores ain't.

Full Results Here [Mainichi]

For those who don't have cable TV, live in North America or only read books, here's the Brain Age infomercial. It's appearing on the Discovery Channel and making people's parents suddenly "into gaming." Not sure what that means these days anymore...

Brain Age [Official Site] Thanks, Nikongmer!

Ryuta Kawashima knows gray matter. The famed neuroscientist discovered that parts of the human brain are stimulated when focusing on a single taste, but light up like a Christmas tree when answering a succession of problems. The Tohoku University professor published and lectured extensively on the topic, stating previously that video games damage the human brain.

"There is a problem we will have with a new generation of children — who play computer games — that we have never seen before," Prof. Kawashima told The Observer back in 2001. These problems include increasingly violent individuals with underpowered intellects.

Game-hater or not, Nintendo roped the eminent professor in to help create a series of "brain games." These were to be anything but traditional video games. Designed to exercise the noggin and not thumbs, the titles included a series of math, reading and writing exercises. Suddenly gaming got "smart" as the brain games went supernova, selling 5 million to date and propelling the portable into the hands of non-gamers.

On April 17th, Nintendo is releasing a localized version of Noh o Kitaeru Otona no DS Training called Brain Age. Another, called Big Brain Academy, hits the U.S. late next month. In a special interview, we talked with the Professor via email about the game, the expected success of brain games and his now famous pixelized face.

Q). How would you explain the concept of mental age to someone who's never heard of it?

A). The mental age is calculated from expected average cognitive functions of specific age of people. For example, if you perform a cohort study of memory function of healthy people, you would find age-related decline of memory function due to normal aging. Also, you could calculate regression line between age and scores of memory function tests that enable you to calculate expected average memory function of specific age of subjects. Then when you refer that regression data, you could know your memory function, that is, your test score, is the same level as average people of some specific age. This is the mental age calculated from memory tests. We combined results of several cognitive tests to calculate the mental age in DS games.

Q). What exactly is happening when people are playing the brain games? (What parts of the brain are being used?)

A). We have used near infra-red spectroscopy during developing these games. And we confirmed that the prefrontal cortex of the bilateral hemispheres is strongly activated during playing each game.

Q). What is it like to see the brain training series take off so much? Did you expect the series to become this popular?

A). Beyond success of these DS games, I have published two brain training books, both of which have sold more than a million. So I know brain training is social trend in Japan. Therefore, shall I say, it's not too incredible.

Q). What sort of concrete improvements can people expect to experience if they exercise mentally with the brain training games?

A). We expect improvements of memory functions, extroversion, and positiveness. It is important to note here that we think DS games are not only for brain training, but also for a tool for communication with family and friends. Four people can play using one software. Basic content of games is so simple that these are games that can be played with children, adults and aged peoples, and the results of games can be compared with all members. We already see many families have started communicating more with DS games in Japan.

Q). Have you seen people playing the DS games in public (on the train, for example)? How did it make you feel?

A). Yes I did, and I felt very bad. Because I know a 3D polygon of my face appears often in the games, and I thought that people may recognize me as the guy in the games.

Q). What do you think about the DS games coming to the US and Europe?

A). It is very interesting to see whether DS games would succeed outside of Japan, since there are too many cultural differences.

Q). Does the Japanese version exercise different parts of the brain from the English language one? Or does it do the same thing?

A). It does the same.

Q). What do you think of the English version? What do you like best about the localization?

A). Well ... I must say excellent, and I love all!

*edited for clarity

With the Brain Age release a week away, the reviews have started to flood in. While the game has owned the Japanese sales charts for months and has more than widened the demographic, things are not so certain Stateside. Know what that means? It's time to speculate.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

The former designer-turned-executive Iwata said that the DS Brain Training brought him back to gaming. "I played it every day for three to five months since the game launched, and by the end of the day, I got my brain age to about 27," Iwata said. (Brain ages close to 20 years-old are most desirable.) The Kirby creator even confessed that he's "gained a little bit of interest in getting more involved in game development again." He quickly downplayed this interest reports MTV, saying he was too busy preparing speeches and whatnot. Bummer.

As with most businesses, it's readily apparent when those at the top have experience working in the industry. Rarer is when those people can lead and inspire others to create. With Iwata now at the helm, Nintendo seems headed in the right direction. Everything now depends on timing. Are the non-gamers ready to get their game on? In Japan, yes. But, America is another bag altogether. The upcoming Brain Age release should provide a good barometer for the Revolution reception in the US.

Full Story [MTV]

Order Sega's new brain trainer and get this limited-edition candle holder that depicts a baby and an adult dreaming about Sega. It even doubles as a mug. Talk about smart.

Order Here [SegaDirect]

On a whim I decided to check with the Nintendo PR peeps to see if they happened to have the full speech sitting around in text form.. don't laugh, they did.

So here you go, the exact speech Iwata was reading from at the GDC. Plenty long but also plenty of goodies.

2006 GDC KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Thank you so much for giving me the honor of speaking before you again this year. In my job, I have to talk to a lot of people, but as you all know, since I

still have the heart of a gamer, I have the most fun talking to you!

Once upon a time, way back in the 1980's, a company became number one because its products meant 'fun' to young people. Then, in the 1990's, a bigger company with a bigger brand name and bigger budgets took away the number one spot.

Fortunately, that first company also had another line of products that let it remain popular and profitable. This company used that threat to reconsider its strategy, and think how it could regain overall leadership. And this is what it decided. It would redefine its own business, and expand its market beyond current core users. Could this strategy work?

Well, we already know the answer. The answer is yes.

Because that first company, Pepsi, has returned to number one in its industry displacing Coke. Pepsi stopped asking, 'How can we sell more cola?' Instead, it started asking, 'What else do people want to drink?'

Today, Pepsi is number one in bottled water. It is number one in sports drinks.

It is number one in health drinks. And, of course, it remains number one in the snacks business that it used to maintain profitability while they executed their disruptive strategy. (As every game developer understands, the three basic food groups are Fritos, Cheetos and Doritos.)

I am here today to share some stories about Nintendo. But, I begin with a story about Pepsi because it demonstrates how thinking differently, and holding strongly to your strategy, can disrupt an entire industry ' and in a good way.

For some time, we have believed the game industry is ready for disruption.

Not just from Nintendo, but from all game developers. It is what we all need to expand our audience. It is what we all need to expand our imaginations.

Several years ago, when I began talking about reaching out to casual gamers and non-gamers, few people listened. Today, Nintendo DS is succeeding in disrupting the handheld market in fact, you could attribute most industry growth last year to just this one product line. Now, people are listening more closely.

I know many of you smiled when we demonstrated Nintendogs at the GDC last year, but I'm sure not many of you believed it could sell 6 million copies around the world in less than a year. But the success of DS is not based on just one game; it is the story of several new kinds of software creating brand new players.

Let me explain how disruption is working for us. Most of you are very familiar with the American market, so let me share some information about Japan. When it launched in 2001, Playstation 2 sold 6 million units in its first 21 months. Soon after, our Game Boy Advance did even better, reaching 6 million in 20 months. But Nintendo DS is selling at a much faster pace than any game system in Japanese history. We have reached sales of 6 million systems in just 14 months. And, this number would be far higher if production could keep up with demand.

In part, the DS success is due to how we redefine better technology with unique hardware features. But more importantly, the disruption of Nintendo DS comes from how software takes advantage of the hardware.

Over the last year, no software has created more discussion (or more surprise) than our 'brain' games. The first brain training game, which launched 10 months ago, has sold 1.97 million units. The second brain training game, which only launched the last week of last year, has already sold over 1.8 million units.

I have been asked many times how we decided to develop these games so I thought maybe this is the first story I should share with you today.

Where did this idea come from? I'm sure you can guess, it started where all great creative ideas begin... from a board of directors!

When Atsushi Asada was a member of our Executive Committee, he complained that he knew no one his age who played video games. Because Japan is an aging society, he thought a game designed just for seniors might work.

I agreed it was a good start, but I said it might be a mistake to target only seniors. Instead, maybe something that would appeal to other users, as well.

This meeting occurred just after the E3 show two years ago ' a very busy time for us. We were finalizing the Nintendo DS hardware, as well as preparing DS launch games. Even so, I asked each of our four main development groups to nominate a few people to serve on a task force.

Some of them did not have much experience making games, so I got to play the role of professor, talking to them not just about games, but about overall product planning. The goal of the task force was to invent a game whose appeal would include everyone from youngsters to baby boomers to seniors.

Our early meetings were just brainstorms and didn't produce any solid ideas. But at that time, people in Japan were beginning to read a new book and do its brain exercises. I noticed this, and thought it might be a good game idea.
Even Mr. Mori, our chief financial officer, was doing the exercises himself and convinced me to go forward. Then I consulted with Mr. Miyamoto, and when he got excited, too, I asked the task force to tackle the job.

Several of them said that just exercising your brain might not be enough. Could there be a way for players to measure a 'brain age?' I thought this was a great idea. People would be eager to compare their scores. But in fact, no work at all could begin until we came to agreement with the author, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima.

Since we were both about the same age, I decided to try to meet with him myself. His schedule was very busy, but he agreed he could find just one hour on just one day... the very day that the DS was launching in Japan. Not only was his university a long distance from our offices, but the meeting itself lasted not one hour, but three.

We showed him a prototype brain training software and explained how his work might translate to our medium. He was enthused, and we started exchanging ideas. The doctor offered to demonstrate evidence on how the prototype software was stimulating brain activity.

He asked if he could borrow one of the team members I had brought along from Nintendo. I said, 'Certainly'.

You might find this unbelievable, but his assistant then entered with something that looked like a metal bowl with wires attached to it, and then he turned it upside down, and placed it on my team member's head. It looked like a sci-fi movie from the 1950's.

The doctor showed that he could determine that the prototype game was changing the amount of blood moving across the surface of the brain. This was an important moment for all of us.

I'm sure some people at Nintendo wondered how I could spend so much time on the kind of meeting on the very day of the DS launch, but I think it turned out to be a good idea.

Meanwhile, back at Nintendo, we also benefited from some good timing.

Internally, we have one team we call the 'Development Environmental Group'. They had just finished a library of tools for voice and sound recognition for DS.

Simultaneously, work on hand-writing recognition was also in progress. When they began this work, we all thought these functions would be useful for the DS someday, but we had no real idea how. Then suddenly, it seemed to Mr. Miyamoto and me they would be a perfect match for this brain game.

By now, I admit I was getting very enthusiastic about the project. But at first, I don't remember that the development team felt quite the same way. I assembled a group of nine people and told them that since this wasn't a very complicated programming they should be able to finish the first game in just 90 days. And that included the year-end holiday period. I could tell they were not happy, but at least with such a short schedule, they couldn't waste much time complaining.

My bigger concern was how the market would react, beginning with retailers. Few people inside Nintendo believed they would place very big orders... the game was just too different from what they knew. Maybe it wasn't even a 'game' at all. So at this point, one member of the sales team suggested a new rule.

When our salesmen showed the software to retailers, even before business was discussed, the first 15 minutes of every meeting must be spent with the buyers trying the brain exercises themselves.

Oh, when they heard this, the retailers hated the idea! They were disgusted, but they had no choice. So they started playing, and we could only wait to see how they would react.

And how did they respond? Well, at this point I think I will take a risk and see if we can reproduce those first reactions right here on stage. In order to do that, I'd like to introduce Bill Trinen from Nintendo of America's localization team, a person who has spent months with Brain Age. He'll walk us through a demonstration, and invite a few friends.

[Bill Trinen, from Nintendo of America's localization team, demonstrated the unique game play of the new Nintendo DS game, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, among a group of volunteers]

Thank you Bill (Trinen), Will (Wright), Geoff (Keighley) and Jamil (Moledina).

I think we have now discovered people who are determined to improve their brain age! And of course, that is the secret appeal of this game.

Let me add one more note to this story. Those first retailers, after playing the first game, agreed to buy a total of 70,000 units, which was still more than

our domestic sales team expected, but I was not satisfied with that number. But between the launch of the first game and the second, you could see a disruption of the market occurring across Japan. Something had changed. New people were playing.

Seven months later, we returned with samples of the second Big Brain Academy game. This time, no demonstrations were needed. The retailers quickly placed orders for 850,000 units. And even that turned out not to be enough. It recorded the biggest first-week sales for any DS game ever.

As of right now, the three brain games, including Brain Flex, have sold more than five million copies in Japan alone. The moral of this story is pretty clear. If you want to succeed in game development, you need to follow two simple rules:

First, listen to your board of directors

And second, listen to your chief financial officer

The development of this game came from our belief that people wanted something new. In this case, that game took the form of a 'treadmill for the mind'.

But we also learned that the only real way to demonstrate the appeal of these games is to have people actually play them. At Nintendo in Japan, we had employees take the game home and show it to family and friends, especially people who weren't game players.

Quite a few of our employees were surprised that their parents and wives who would never show any interest in gaming were suddenly playing this everyday.

That helped to build buzz. So, I decided that the same thing might work here in America. And that the best time to start is right now.

So, when we're finished this morning, I thought you should test your own brain age to play yourself, and to show it to a friend or colleague or even your parents even if they have never played games.

So as you leave my keynote address, please take a copy of Brain Age with you as a gift from Nintendo. Please only take one, and understand that the games are only available to pick up when we finish today.

The second story I want to share with you involves disruption of a different sort not only taking a different approach to a new technology, but also finding a way to make it attractive to everyone and thereby expand the overall audience.

The topic was constructing the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Many of you know that we have been experimenting with networks since the 1980s. Back then, you could use your NES in Japan to trade stocks. We kept working, but never thought the time was right to introduce a game network until Nintendo DS.

In 2004, we began considering Wi-Fi gaming. From the start, we had several challenges. First, we knew that both Animal Crossing and Mario Kart would be arriving on the DS the next year, and we wanted them to feature Wi-Fi play. That made the development timetable very short.

Secondly, I insisted that our Wi-Fi interface be seamless. I wanted connecting to someone around the world to be as easy as connecting to someone playing next to you in the same room. As you know, this creates its own problems, because normally making things easier for players, makes things harder for developers.

But the most difficult aspect was deciding who players would be able to connect with. Online gaming normally belongs to the most aggressive players, and they can be a very vocal group. For the casual player, this kind of interaction can be very intimidating. I believed if we catered to only this very vocal group of hard-core players, we could never truly expand the audience.

Originally, we thought Wi-Fi should be set up as a kind of social network, almost a game-play version of MySpace. In Japan, we initially referred to the Wi-Fi system as 'project house party'. We had in mind the comfort of inviting friends over to play in your own home. Well, at Nintendo of America this name was not very popular. They told us that this sounded like what you call a 'tupperware party'. No matter what we called it, I believed the experience must be easy and fun.

What did I mean by 'easy?' It's simple to connect a game on DS locally when you're sitting in a room with your friends. It should be just as easy to find those friends and play with them even if they're thousands of miles away.

But what is 'fun?' That depends on the player. You may want to play Mario Kart only with people you know. Or you may find it more fun to try to defeat total strangers. Sometimes, the choice will be determined by the nature of the game. No one playing Animal Crossing wants someone to come in cut down all their trees and trash their town. What was important to me was that players have the choice, and the freedom to choose which way to play.

For developers, 'easy' and 'fun' doesn't mean the work will be 'easy' or 'fun'. There were many barriers to overcome. And my colleague, Mr. Takao Ohara, will share those stories with you later here at the GDC.

In the end, it is the freedom of choice, I believe, that has made the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection so successful. To date, we have surpassed 1 million unique players, totaling more than 29 million play sessions ' and, this in only 18 weeks of availability.

We reached 1 million players almost five times as fast as the Xbox Live service, which also offered free connections when it began. It took them 20 months to reach 1 million different users. Of course, this has made our Wi-Fi development team very happy as you can see.

What you can't see is that sign they're holding up, a message to all of you. So let me show you what it said: We love the GDC. They all wanted to come, but I told them, 'Sorry, no'. But I did promise I would bring their picture.

As you know, this week we added a new wrinkle to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Voice over internet protocol arrived with Metroid Prime Hunters. It introduces a new level of fun.

At first, I thought you might like to see a Wi-Fi demonstration of the game.

But I know Wi-Fi is nothing new for you. In fact, I imagine many of you have already played Mario Kart DS wirelessly and seamlessly. Instead, I think the true appeal of the game is seen best if we hold our own four-player battle right up here on stage.

Again, I'd like to invite Bill Trinen to come back on stage to get the battle underway.

[Bill Trinen, from Nintendo of America's localization team, demonstrated the wireless game play capability of the Nintendo DS game, Metroid Prime Hunters, among a group of volunteers]

Thank you, everyone. I know I am much better watching this game than playing it.

When we talk about expanding the market to new players, many times this means new kinds of software, but certainly not always. I hope that Metroid Prime Hunters shows we're not turning our backs on the kind of games that current core players already love. We will serve all tastes.

Our new Tetris DS is something even your grandmother will enjoy. On the other hand, you can compete head to head with nine different people on a local network, or three others via Wi-Fi.

We are also going to bring our first all-new Super Mario Bros. game to the DS in a matter of a few weeks. For those of you who have been waiting for the next great Mario game'this is for you. And because you're all such game fans, I've decided to reveal one more brand new adventure for you today.

[The audience was shown a demo reel of the The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass]

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, is designed exclusively for the DS.

It will launch later this year. It's a product of Mr. Aonuma and the team that has created most of the Zelda hits in the past. You will be seeing and playing Zelda both on DS and Nintendo Gamecube at E3.

The third story I have to share is the answer to a question people ask me all the time: how did we get the idea for the Revolution free-hand controller?

Well, we started out with a very simple question: why is it that anyone feels comfortable picking up a remote control for a TV, but many people are afraid to even touch the controller for a video game system? This was our starting point.

Our first controller meetings began early in 2004, and from that initial thought we added two other requirements. First, the controller must be wireless. We need to give players freedom to move. And second, the look of the controller had to be simple and non-threatening. But of course, at the same time, it had to be sophisticated enough to serve the needs of complex games.

And yes, we also wanted it to be 'revolutionary'.

Finding an answer to all of this was not easy. For more than six months, two people at NCL did nothing but produce sketch after sketch with new ideas. Each sketch caused more discussion, and the discussions led us to create dozens of prototype designs. In all, about 15 people were involved trying to figure out an answer.

At the same time, I was considering technologies which would incorporate a direct pointing device, something that would show direct visual contact between the controller and the screen. In fact, many good ideas were floating around, but nothing yet felt revolutionary.

Early last year a young team leader of the controller development group came up with a disruptive idea: what if you could play with just one hand?

Mr. Miyamoto quickly imagined a small, simple, wireless device. That intrigued us, but we realized an immediate problem. Considering our plans, how would we allow backward compatibility to all the previous Nintendo games that required two-hand control?

Again, Mr. Miyamoto had an answer: make the small wireless controller detachable from a larger, traditional controller ' both using the same wireless interface.

This sounded good, but when we shared the idea with our Metroid Prime producers, they objected. They said their games would not work with what we invented.

They added another idea: Why not keep the simple one-hand controller, but also add a secondary device for the other hand if the game required it? ' Something like a nun-chuk device. We think this is something that will entirely change firstperson shooter games. By separately using the joystick device to control position and the direct pointing device to target enemies the experience truly feels more intuitive.

Now, we really went to work. There were dozens of models and prototypes fabricated until we came up with the final result. And what did it look like?

Well, it looked exactly like the same TV remote control that we first imagined more than a year earlier. Sometimes ideas are like good wine in that they just need time. After all the designs and mockups, we were happy with the final result. It met our goals. It was wireless. It was inviting to new players. It offered something brand new for core players. And, it was also a new interface we could offer to every player.

But, it also represented something else. As you can imagine, this was a very expensive process. Not only in terms of the research and development costs, but also the manufacturing expense of producing such an elaborate control system, and including it as part of every hardware purchase.

Some people put their money on the screen, but we decided to spend ours on the game experience. It is an investment in actual market disruption. Not simply

to improve the market ' but disrupt it. We believe a truly new kind of game entertainment will not be realized unless there is a new way to connect a player to his game.

'New' is good, but there also is an appetite for 'old'. For young players, classic games are brand new. For others, they are a way to feel young again.

After we announced the virtual console concept for revolution last year, many people asked me if only games for Nintendo systems would be available. Today, I have a better answer. I can announce that games specifically developed for both the Sega Genesis and the NEC Turbo Grafx system will also be available for Nintendo Revolution via the Virtual Console.

Between them, these systems built a library of more than a thousand different games. Of course, not all of them will be available, but the best of them will. Thank you for listening to my stories this morning. However, the most important story of all is still to be told. I hope all of you, the creative force of

our industry, will help us write it. It is the story of how disruption will help every one of us overcome the growing barriers to game development. We know what the main barrier is cost. There is one dominant business model for our industry. Publishers work backwards from a console game at retail that sells for $50 or now, even $60. To compete at that level, games must be longer, larger and more complex, which requires bigger development teams. Success is more likely if a strong license is acquired, but even then, huge amounts of money are needed to
market that game to a mass audience.

It's understandable that many publishers, in order to reduce risk, feel most comfortable relying on sequels to already successful, high budget games. As a result, our business is beginning to resemble a bookstore where you can only buy expensive, full sets of encyclopedias. No romance novels. No paperbacks. No magazines.

In our business, too often people with a fresh idea don't have a chance. I believe if Tetris were presented today, here is what the producer would be told:

'Go back'give me more levels'give me better graphics'give me cinematics'and you're probably going to need a movie license to sell that idea to the public'.

The producer would go away dejected. Today, Tetris might never be made.

Nintendo understands the dominant business model. We work with it every day. And future Zeldas and Marios and Metroids are going to be bigger masterpieces than ever before. But, this does not have to be the only business model. We want to help you create a new one. One where your simple Tetris will be made. With Nintendo Revolution, we offer a combination of opportunities that simply can't be matched. Our controller allows for every existing form of game to take on a new character. It allows for game creation that is not dependent on just the size of the development budget. I consider our virtual console concept the video game version of Apple's iTunes music store.

Since I first announced the virtual console concept last year at E3, other people have become very interested in digital downloads. Others will offer such a service, but it will not be the same. Because for us, this is not just a new business opportunity, for us, this is true innovation ' true disruption. It is part of our DNA.

The digital download process will bring new games to the widest possible audience of new players. Young people, older people, even those who never played video games before. When I think of what faces all of us right now, I imagine what it must have been like for the explorers who first set foot on a new continent. For them, it was impossible to imagine all the adventure that lay ahead.

Our adventure is still ahead of us. Nintendo is committed to creating an environment where all of your work can prosper. I began today saying that disruption is not just a strategy for Nintendo.

Yes, we have already disrupted handheld and it worked. Yes, we have already disrupted Wi-Fi ' and it worked. We disrupted the very definition of a "game" and that is working, too. In a few weeks, you will better understand how to disrupt console gaming. You will play, and you will see.

At Nintendo, we do not run from risk. We run to it. We are taking the risk to move beyond current boundaries. It should be our goal, each of us, to reach the

new players as well as the current players. Our goal is to show them surprise. Our reward is to convince them that above all video games are meant to be just one thing "fun."

Fun for everyone.

Thank you again so much for inviting me.

Fad or for real, Nintendo's bringing two new brain games to the public. One of them is called Kageyama Hideo no IQ Teacher DS and the other one is Right Brain Kids. Apparently, IQ Teacher DS does things like help strengthen conceptional memory and thought, while Right Brain Kids helps with memorization.

One day DS-totting children won't even need to go to school.

Screens Here [Game Watch Impress]

Just how popular are brain games in Japan? Prof. Kawashima's popular Adult Brain Training has been morphed into video games and now a DVD. Repeated watching strengthens gray matter, and viewers are expected to talk to their TVs during the DVD brain training. Thought only sports fans and crazy people had conversations with their televisions.

More Here [Watch Impress]