Like many retirees, Isamu Shishido sometimes forgets names and even his own telephone number. But now the 67-year-old says he's found a product that could sharpen his thinking: a new brain-training game from Nintendo Co.
The ailing maker of Mario and Pokemon games has scored a smash hit by courting Japan's burgeoning gray market with Brain Training for Adults -- a number and puzzles game that Nintendo says can stimulate the brain and ward off dementia.
"I don't want to end up some crazy old man," Shishido explained at a crowded Tokyo electronics store after trying the game on display. "I want to play a little everyday before going to bed."
The game, played on the company's hand-held DS console, is part of an effort by Nintendo to broaden its customer base amid falling profits.
Other recent DS software hits let players study English, raise a virtual puppy, or converse with animals in an imaginary village -- all departures from traditional games that cater to young males by focusing on sports, shootings and fist fights.
The brain training game has sold 3.34 million copies since its launch in May last year. That in turn has fueled the popularity of the easy-to-use Nintendo DS console, which is operated with only a plastic pen and touch pad, rather than a complicated set of controls.
The console has sold more than 6 million in Japan since its December 2004 release. That's more sales than for Japanese rival Sony Corp's sleeker and more sophisticated PlayStation Portable, which also went on sale in December 2004 and has sold 4.2 million units in Japan and the rest of Asia.
Customers like Shishido, a food company retiree, will have to wait to buy a DS console, however: A new slimmed-down version was launched last week and promptly sold out, forcing eager buyers to scour Japan's electronics shops in hopes of finding one in stock. The next big shipment is not expected until mid-March.
"We're not surprised. People who never even liked computer games are now getting hooked," said Ken Toyoda, a Nintendo spokesman.
To cater to older consumers, the Nintendo DS is user-friendly. With just pen and touch pad, players can turn the console sideways to make it feel more familiar, like a book.
Nintendo's strategy seems to have worked. Some hospitals have even started putting Nintendo DS units in waiting rooms and wards for patients.
"We've made 10 Nintendo DSs available and they're almost always rented out," said Atsuko Uchida, an administrator at Kyoto's Uchida Hospital, which runs a "memory loss clinic" for patients suffering dementia.
Doctors at the hospital even recommend elderly people purchase the console to stimulate their brains regularly at home, and watch patients playing the game as an informal method of diagnosis, Uchida said.
"The game won't cure dementia. But it's a good form of stimulation -- especially for old people living alone," said Takeshi Kihara, a neuropsychiatrist at the clinic.
Nintendo now hopes to bring its winning formula overseas with Brain Age, an English language version of the brain training game.
The company has sold 8.73 million DS machines outside Japan since they first went on sale in November 2004 in the US, and has already scored an international hit in Nintendogs -- in which puppies jump around in the screen and can be petted with a plastic pen.
Nintendo has said Brain Age, which launches in the US on April 17 and by June in Europe, will additionally feature "sudoku," the wildly popular number puzzles.
Brain Age also lets players test their intelligence levels through IQ-type quizzes, and saves results so individuals can track their progress or compete with other players.
For the more tech-savvy, the company has also said the DS machine will soon work as a portable TV, using a card equipped with a tuner and antenna that allows people to watch digital broadcasts -- though the service won't immediately be available overseas.
An Internet browser feature is also in the works for the machine.
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