Adults-Only Titles Seeking a Place in the Video Game Market

Adults-Only Titles Seeking a Place in the Video Game Market

April 24, 2007
The mainstream video game industry won't touch sexually explicit games, but events like the Sex in Videogames Conference indicate that adult videogames are not only here to stay but are likely to gain market share. 

A number of developers are interested in creating and marketing adult titles and, apparently, at least some consumers are interested in purchasing them.  

For those developers, a major issue is that you can’t just stroll down to your local game retailer and buy a sexually-explicit game.  Why not?  Well, besides the fact that the major console manufacturers won’t sell or license AO rated games, EMA member stores and other major retailers won’t carry them.  So how does the adult game publisher connect with the potential customer?

Brenda Brathwaite, professor, game designer, author and chairperson of the IGDA’s Sex in Games SIG says online distribution is the answer:
Our limitations will soon be our strengths.  As sales of games become more and more digital, the pseudo-censorship of retail is losing its foothold.

According to Brathwaite, the growing availability of broadband and independent game publishers will forge the path to a burgeoning market for adult games.  Manifesto Games is one of those independent publishers that specialize in the online distribution of sex games and other non-mainstream titles.  Says Greg Costikyan, Manifesto founder and winner the GDC 2007 Maverick Award:
It's not that we're focused on sex games, but we're happy to offer them... The whole idea behind Manifesto is to offer edgier products that address... subject material that the conventional industry isn't able to address.

We offer exposure to an audience of people who might be interested in games of this type but who might not otherwise encounter them.

As an alternative to publishers like Manifesto, some developers are setting up their own affiliate programs.  Brad Abrams, head of development on VirtuallyJenna, set up a program called “Fake Sex Real Money” that allows website owners to sign on as marketing partners and online retailers.  Abrams is quite happy with his system and insists that the lack of visibility in retail stores isn’t much of an issue:
People will find our sex products anyways.  Sex sells!  The boxed product model is just an expensive dinosaur.

Via: GamesIndustry.biz

-Reporting from San Diego, GP Correspondent Andrew Eisen

Comments

@Yoshiko:

Lightweight. :P
Don't we all ready have enough porn games?

Dead or Alive series, anyone? That's enough video game porn to last me into my 40's.
I'll applaud this only when adult game manufacturers make games that are as interesting and involving as the average Japanese "date sim" game. So far, I haven't seen a single non-Japanese erotic game that was even remotely interesting... all of the ones I've seen have been random mini-games (like Simon or Mastermind, or "tap a key as fast as you can") strung together with short (and bland) video clips which often have *NOTHING* to do with the "game" portion of the game.

When adult games are on a creative par with non-adult games, then I'll be interested.
@Andrew
Also may i add that getting a girlfriend requires thing that games do not (attractiveness humor etc.)

Also forget about porn I wanna see games that are so violent and brutal they'll Rockstar turn its head in disgust. Those are far more appealing to me than some stupid porn. If games rated Ao (for violence not porn) get accpeted in the main-stream then there will be almost no reason to hold back on anything. (Or even better gid rid of the Ao rating all together or just say that no game can get an Ao rating that does not have nudity or sex onscreen).
@Godmil

Sad part is that is EXTREMELY tricky. While advertising on adult sites is in a way safer, you don't get much exposure, yet if you use any other medium ot any other sites, horn blowers will say you're advertising them to minors.

@Andrew Eisen

-Games can’t give you children or diseases.

-Paying for a game is safe, easy, legal, and cheaper.

If only politicians and lawyer would get those two points through their heads.
Video game girls don't say no. 8) Well, sometimes they do, but in the end they typically say yes, if in retrospect.
Zerodash and GoodRobotUs,

What is the appeal of erotic games vs. actual physical relationships?

-Paying for a game is safe, easy, legal, and cheaper.
-Games can facilitate your fantasies regardless of how farfetched, kinky, or absurd.
-Games can’t give you children or diseases.
-You can turn a game off when you are done playing with it.
-You can buy a new game if you’re bored with the one you’ve been playing.
-You can go back to the old game if you feel like it.


Andrew Eisen
I'm with Zero here, must admit. Never found polygons sexy.

It is good that the market is opening to those who want access to it I suppose, whatever format it's in, both America and the UK ended up having to accept movie-based pornography, and allow specialist shops which sell them, theres no reason why the same rules can't apply to video games.

Personally, it's not something that floats my boat, the idea of being able to do things like design a mannequin and have virtual sex with it sort of puts me in mind of winning a blow-up doll of any woman of your choice, at the end of the day, no matter what it looks like, it's artificial.

Still, that said, I'll admit I'm no stranger to the wonders, and terrors, of the Internet. I suppose any kind of pornography is artificial in nature, but I suppose at least with a movie, you're looking at a real human being.

Naaa, I'll stick with Zero, go get laid, it's much more fun ;)
Do porn game publishers even send their games to game reviewers? I write about games for the New York Times and the raciest game I ever found in my mailbox was The Guy Game (which I didn't review, not because it was a bit pornographic but because it sucked).
more pron on the internet! there isn't enough!
Andrew:

Or the DS. Apparently, that potential is not too far from being tapped:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/04/20

I don't think I'll ever quite understand the Japanese.
What about late night TV? They have tons of late night commercials for stuff like phone sex and male enhancement pills.
maybe now we'll have sex games that don't involve tentacles...

¬_¬*
I have several revolutionary ideas for adult titles on the Wii.

Think about it.

Andrew Eisen
Selling with the digital distribution model is all well and good, but Advertising is still a problem for Adult software. I work for Red Light Center (pictured in the article), and despite it's popularity, I've yet to see an advert for it anywhere on the web, or any other adult product. most mainstream pages are offlimits (See last weeks Penny Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/04/16 )

It's all very well Adult games being advertised on Adult sites, but there's got to be some break into the mainstream somewhere. I'm just not sure where that is.
A bit tasteless maybe, but I can't resist...

The boxed product model is just an expensive dinosaur

So, given this quote, and the convince of digital downloads. Are they trying to tell us they want their sex games to be cheap and easy?
YES FINALLY!!! I hope we can see some uber violent games like how The Punisher was before it was censored to get teh M rating.
pr0n!!!!11!!!
I would like to see a great many AO rated games, whether they are of the "porn" type (precious few of those as "games" as it is) or merely more extreme uncensored Adult level games.

While it is somewhat common to find such games for the computer, it is nearly impossible to find them for consoles.

Just as Adult videos are handled seperately from "regular" movies, Adult Only Interactive Entertainment could easily be handled seperately from "regular" video games.

It should also be noted that "Adult Only" does not necessarily mean "porn".

Just as video games have genres (sports, racing, RPGs, First Person Shooters, etc), so too should Adult Only Interactive Entertainment.

So many folks associtate "Adult Only" with "porn" that it's hard to get across to them that Adults can also have complex games that aren't limited by "the Moral Majority".

Where to be sold? Since I've already said that "Adult Only" isn't strictly "porn", then selling them in Adult Entertainment stores, with the porn videos, is also misleading. Selling them online is all well and good.

While selling them "behind the counter" in a regular store would seem reasonable... uh, to be honest, I don't like that for 2 reasons.
(A) Uh, ya see, I'm legally blind. Even putting the games in a glass case makes it hard to see them, for me anyway.
(B) Requiring people to ask for such games places a misleading negative stigma on those buying such games. Let's face it, while it seems reasonable to some people, to others, anyone who buys such a game must therefore be a "bad" person.

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
honor is disapearing then what was supposed to be america would become europe there will disapear moral grounds this is bad for the country this is bad. there is no need for this.
I have yet to understand the appeal of games intended to 'rouse the 'ol loins. Just go get laid instead.
@ Eric

I hope you are joking? What's wrong with Europe's morals? There will disappear moral grounds? Is that even a coherent thought? Honor? What does honor have to do with anything?

America's prudish Puritan guilt that over-arches US society is plain silly. Human sexuality is nothing to be guilty about, in all it's forms. It's a natural fact of life.

I applaud the move into more 'adult' video games, being that every other more 'respectable' media has it's own adult branch. Books, movies, photography, you name it.
@~the1jeffy

You could understand that? I read it a few times over and still couldn't get it.

Anyhow, I agree. Hell, I believe sex is actually a sacred thing, that should not be deprived or repressed by either religion or government. I mean, most older religions (pre-christian) held women in very high regard, due to their ability to give birth. For example, the ancient Greeks consider a woman dying in childbirth to be as equal of an honor as a man dying in battle, which was one of their highest honors.

Now, unless they make strong, good games, I probably wouldn't be interested, but go ahead and make adult games. I don't care. But to bring morals into this, well, that's just BS. You're morals may be, and are, different from some other people. You're morals are not the only ones in the country. Besides, too much emphesis is placed on morality, in my opinion. Especially in politics.
@Wolf:

Too much emphasis is placed on morality? Huh? What time-frame are you living in? Sure, there are a few outspoken groups who want the country to be legislated by Biblical law, but in general our society is very pluralistic. You can see it everytime someone says "Pornography is bad :(" and then everyone jumps in saying "WHOA! Hold up buddy! You have your morals and I have mine! Who are you to judge me?!"

Morality in politics is inescapable because, really, what else would you base it off of? Everything is based off of people's morals and values. Murder? Thievery? Abortion? Death penalty? You could say, "Well, most laws are about not hurting other people." True, but they exist because people generally feel that it is -wrong- to do so.

I can't see "Your morals are different from other peoples' morals" as a valid defense because, duh, everyone has morals, and many of them have different morals. You're just restating the problem. "Your morals are different from mine -- what are we going to do about it?"
[...] [via GamePolitics] [...]
I think you're reading too much into it. It was basically target only at the comment made by Eric.

There is too much emphesis, especially in politics. Such as fighting to illegalize gay marriage. That's a moral and religious based issue. If you were to take that away, they'd be allowed to marry because they would be equal as straights due to non-descrimination. Basically, under the law, they would be as equal as everyone else. But that's not the case; religion has caused that and is still used. A lot of people look at such moral-based issues and vote for someone based on that, rather than other issues or their reputation. I should have clarafied I meant this more on social issues, such as abortion and gay marriage. Immigration, etc. A large amount of people tends to look at a canidate and go "He's anti-gay! He's got my vote!" instead of paying attention to, say, hypothetically, the fact the canidate embezzled money from his private company, which is involved in questionable practices and that on other issues, he's a conservative radical who rather favor war than peace, and clearly would make rather questionable decision while in office. They ignore that because, guess what, he's anti-gay, a gun-toting NRA member, and is pro-life. That's what I meant; people look too much at their morals and not enough at their practices. I'm not saying they can't do that, just, I find it rather stupid. Yes, I'd rather vote for someone who supports gay marriage and is pro-choice, but if they have questional practices and had made rather harmful decisions in the past, then I'd rather go look for another canidate.

As for your last paragraph; that statement was to Eric saying that the moral grounds of society would disappear. How? We each have different morals. Now, if everyone in the country believed porn was bad, then I could kind of see how that would deteriorate the nations morality. But in reality, it's the opposite; there is a variety of beliefs. As hence, just because there will be some adult games, it wouldn't cause some kind of immense social collapse unless there was a vast majority who had similar morals who believed these kinds of games would be bad.
Vladimir: I think you've missed the point of a proper Republic (which the US is - a Republic with some Democratic details, to be more specific). The point isn't for majority to rule... the point is for the minority to be protected from the tyrrany of the majority.

Murder, Rape, etc. are nearly universally considered, "bad things," regardless of people's religious or moral background; there aren't any civilized countries that approve of the killing of their own people. But "victimless" crimes (such as prostitution and drugs) and non-crimes (such as violent media) fall into a grey area, where morality stops being a firm guiding point and starts being a virtual blinder, making people fall back on dogmatic catchphrases instead of rational, reasoned discussion.

Is sex sinful? Christianity (and its sub-sects such as Catholicism, Protestantism, and so on) is pretty much the only major religion that holds sex, in and of itself, to be sinful, regardless of the intent behind it. For that reason alone, whether sex should be legislated is already treading on shaky grounds, because it's a question of differing morals - what is or isn't "right." Taking the question into VIRTUAL sex muddies the issue further - not even the majority of Christians consider erotic entertainment such as porn movies and adult video games to be sinful. If there's no act - or even INTENT of an act - upon another person, how can there be sin?

I'm not Christian myself, but I have a Christian upbringing (Southern Baptist on my Father's side, Catholic on my stepmother's side, none-of-the-above on my Mother's side). I understand the Christian viewpoint. I just don't agree with a lot of it. My viewpoint is close to the Wiccan Rede: "An it harms none, do as thou wilt." Or, in plain English, "If it doesn't hurt anyone, enjoy yourself."
@Nekojin:

I agree. A free society should include the respect of the minority's opinion. I don't have the exact figures, but I would assume more people approve of letting others have access to pornography than wish to restrict it.

Anyway, I think you're looking at morality the wrong way. You're pigeonholing morality into the realm of the organized religions (Christianity, Taoism, etc.) and not looking at it as part of the entire human experience of values. You say, "Murder, Rape, etc. are nearly universally considered, 'bad things,' regardless of people’s religious or moral background." How can you call something "bad" if you're not going to place it in the realm of values? Calling something a "bad thing" is just another way of calling something "immoral." You probably agree with that, but I'm clarifying my position just in case.

If we look at morality in that perspective and not just the "Because it says so in the Bible" perspective, then morality can be a part of "rational, reasoned discussion" (which I think is an essential part of any enterprise). Then we can realize that our behavior and opinions are largely based on our morality and values and not on some other, unnamed, amoral factor.

I agree with your, eh, Wiccan motto. If it doesn't harm anyone in any way......... go crazy. But tell me if you agree with me on this: Are there some things that do not necessarily do physical harm to anyone, but can still harm the person committing the act? (note: I do not consider watching pornography to be hurting anybody, unless maybe you promised someone that you wouldn't do it =P)
Note that I didn't say PHYSICAL harm. But psychological self-harm is an incredibly slippery concept to grasp and define.

There are lots of ways to harm others without PHYSICALLY harming them. Stealing from them. Lying to get them fired. Talking them into doing actions that you know are destructive and harmful to them. And so on. But psychological self-harm... addictions? Obsessive/compulsive disorders? Much harder to identify, and not clearly identifiable as harm at the time you do the action.

One of the corrolaries of the Wiccan Rede is that if people consent to the harm (IE, roughhousing during a game of football, bondage play, etc.), then it's still okay... so self-harm becomes a meaningless term, since you obviously consent to anything you do to yourself.

On the matter of morals and ethics. There are lots of ways to separate the two, despite the fact that most people use them interchangeably. Morality is what religions teach you; ethics are what you define as your own personal rules. Morals are inherently and specifically rooted in a spiritual basis.

I think one of the clearest ways to show the difference between morality and ethics is when it comes to killing another person. Morally (for Christians), it's straightforward: Thou shalt not kill. Period, end of discussion. Ethically, there are all sorts of circumstances that you might choose to kill someone. They're trying to kill you. You're part of the military, and it's your job (defending a symbol). They're trying to harm you or someone you love, and killing them is the only way to actually stop them. The list could go on and on.

On another site, someone posted a simpler way to differentiate the two: Morals are a system (perhaps a rigid one) of telling right from wrong. Ethics is the study and application of that system.

In reality, laws are applied ethics; religious codes are moral structures.

I'm getting too long-winded here. We could squabble over terms all day and not make progress, but I think that, at the core of it, we mostly agree on the fundamental concepts we're discussing.
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Posted 11/08/09 at 09:02am
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:01am
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:53am
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:46am
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:31am
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:07am
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:06am
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Posted 11/08/09 at 12:24am
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Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
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Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
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Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
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