When I think of "games for women" I think of those things that come in pink packages and look like they were designed for 8 year old girls. The industry should be ashamed of itself for subscribing to such a bizarre attitude towards women.

I've been hoping for street date announcements for years now.  Ship dates are nice, but just don't give a definitive date for when I can expect to walk into a store and buy a game right off the shelf.  No preordering, no calling ahead, no "well, it's not on the shelf yet".  If DVDs and CDs can pull of a unified release day, why not games?

I assume Wal-Mart will have the God of War PSP bundle when it ships in June.

I keep hearing there will be more games for women as the number of women gamers grows, but we aren't seeing much that women gamers actually like. As a previous commenter alluded to, women gamers aren't looking for fix-your-hair-and-develop-a-relationship games.

We're looking for entertainment, the same as any gamer. That's why we enjoy many of the mainstream games already. While many women gamers might go for more adventure games with less explicit gore (and without the stupid scanty costumes and helplessness and even rape that go with the usual female characters in games), game companies ignore this and refuse to tap the market. They can't seem to see anything between pink packaging for 8-year-olds (thanks A. Rollo) and gratuitous violence against throwaway female game characters.

It's one reason I hope we begin to see more women programmers and gamers on the production end. The game companies have had years to begin to develop games for intelligent adult women gamers and tap this untapped market, and they haven't done it--they don't have a clue.

So wherever it is you're hearing rumors about more games for women--I hope it's actual games for adult women, and I hope it's actually going to happen! I'm skeptical because we hear these rumors but never with a game name or a specific game company attached. We'll see. I absolutely love gaming and hope these companies start to grow an affinity for my money. I'm a consumer waiting to consume--what's the problem here? So far they don't seem to want my money much. They're programming for stereotypes, not for women gamers.

I returned my 40 gig PS3 I had purchased at Wal Mart over the holiday when I found out it would not play SACD disks or PS2 games. I had to go to Best Buy to find an 80 gig unit with those features since Wal Mart only had the 40 gig units in stock. Sony keeps taking functionality away from the customers.

Great feedback, you are correct when you say that games for women need to be more sophisticated. I agree totally.

Sam's Club does expect to have God of War Chains of Olympus and the special edition PSP at launch! The game is awesome.

As for the 40G version of the PS3, Sony was clearly trying to hit a price point and it appears to have resonated with Members. They did knock out backward compatability, limit USB ports and card readers, but not everyone wanted that. I did and am glad I have a 60G with the most robust backward compatability. They have choices to make and clearly the market was telling Sony that their price was too high. It is selling well right now with the 40G unit. Tough call. Buy the 40 and keep the PS2 is an option as well.

Ugh...  "Imagine" games are not aimed towards women, they're aimed towards girls.  Stop confusing the 2, there's a HUGE difference. Especially in what they like to play.  I know, cause some of the games my daughter likes, I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole (unless she whined and begged for me to "help" her).

I've been playing video games since I was 7 (1st game I played I was actually like 4 but I don't really count the Atari my dad had cause I was too young to really understand what I was supposed to be doing. And I remember playing Mario Brothers 2 when I was 5 but it wasn't until I was 7 that I really started to get into it.  First with a baseball game, then beating Contra with my older brother when I was 8 or 9 - we still remember the cheat code for unlimited lives - I even remember playing Ghostbusters, but I didn't really fall in love with gaming until Final Fantasy was released in the US and I've been happily addicted ever since). 

Now, It wasn't until 2 years ago that I bought my first game system (unless you count my PC which I use mostly for gaming, then it was about 3 years ago) - actually owned and paid for by me, registered by me and used by me (the ones I grew up playing on belonged to other people cause apparently everyone around me thought "girls don't play games"). 

It's insulting really to say that women are "just now" playing games.  Most of the female gamers I know have pretty much the same background story.  They played on their brothers/fathers/uncles/boyfriends systems/games because no one thought "girls play games" so they never got them as gifts and I don't know many kids who could/can afford their own system and games.

When I hear someone say there's "more female gamers now", I think... "no, you're just now seeing them!"

I mean seriously.. how are these stats gathered?  Was anyone seriously even asking if "girls play games" back 10, 15, 20 years ago?  How does the industry know there's more?  And more in straight numbers or percentages or ... ugh.  It's like saying we're an anamoly when, we're not.

It's like how most people don't know that a great group of women helped build the first all-electronic digital computer. 

Frustrating and insulting.  Cause I was just dying to be told I was invisible till "now".

     Fair points, publishers are taking notice of female gamers of all ages and it is about time. No doubt, this will increase and will be a real positive for the industry. As to who gathers the stats, the Entertainment Software Associateion recently revealed that 38% of gamers are female. Interestingly, Dale North at Destructiod noted that in 2006 women gamers also represented 38%m in 2005 it was 42% and in 2004, 38%. I think publisers are really starting to take notice based on our conversations with them. It is about time. I know my daughter will be playing video games as she gets older.

Huh? You guys know that this sentence has absolutely zero meaning, right?

There is no such thing as "Blu-Ray gaming experience", Blu-Ray is the physical media the games are distributed on.

Rhiannon, great comments. The gaming industry might well stand up and take notice that most women gamers have been playing since childhood. During my early grade school years my dad bought us a Commodore 64. I loved that machine. I played early primitive Frogger, M.U.L.E., etc., and taught myself to write simple programs. I was in third grade when I started writing programs and messing with the games.

So when the gaming industry writes articles about all these new women gamers coming on board, I laugh. What, we all suddenly took up gaming at age 30 or 40 or 50 out of the clear blue sky? If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, it didn't happen. If women play games and no one notices it, it didn't happen either. I am personally thrilled by some of the new games that have come out and hope to see more of them, especially games created for people, not stereotypes. Long live gaming!

Joe, good blog entry. We gamers are passionate about our games so keep it coming.

Jordan - I disagree with your comments. The disc can hold a wealth of information. You will see games for the PS3 THIS YEAR that will not be possible on other systems due to holding capacity of the discs. Watch and you will see an effort by Sony to explain what the gaming experience is like on Blu! Very cool.

Lara - MULE!! WOW I had that on my Atari 400/800!! GREAT GAME. Would love to see a new version of that one! Thanks for the feedback.