Games for Health Japan
Toru Fujimoto
Serious Games Japan / Penn State University

Outline
Serious Games Japan Updates
Games for Health projects in Japan
– Game prescription project
– Rehabilitainment games
– SG Lab’s project
Nintendo DS & Wii Games for Health
Some implications
– Factors of success & failure in DS market

Serious Games in Japan
Serious Games Japan community (since
May, 2004)
Two books on serious games released in
2007
• Serious Games: Transforming Education and
Society through Digital Games (by Toru
Fujimoto)
• Don’t Bother Me Mom, I’m Learning! (by
Mark Prensky, translation)

A Report on Serious Games
Research report: the current status of
Serious Games 2008 (by Digital
Contents Association of Japan, funded
by Japan Machinery Association)
Researchers and developers were
involved in the project
Introduced current games for health
efforts in Japan to Japanese audiences

Games for Health projects in Japan

“Game Prescription” project
Joint research project by Waseda Univ,
Namco, and New technology
foundation
Four research topics
– Psycho-physiological effects of
videogames
– Evaluation of videogame interaction
– Effects of playing videogames on
children with developmental
disorder
– Evaluation of literacy learning
system using multi-layer display for
developmental dyslexia

“Game Prescription” project
The study indicated
– Videogame-play may causes psycho-
physiological effects
– The type and degree of the effect
varies according to the player’s
preference and the type of the game
– The more skilled and concentrated,
the more effects actively
A DS title “99 tears” will be
released in June
– Digital novel to “weep and heal”
with a personality test to choose
right stories

Games for Rehabilitation
Namco’s
“rehabilitainment” games
• Research indicated an
improvement effect by using
games for rehabilitation
• Used at 122 hospitals and
nursing-care facilities
• “Making rehabilitation fun”

Doki-Doki Snake Beater
Developed a new whack-a-mole type game to
train lower-body functions
Train iliopsoas muscles to prevent falling

SG Lab
Subsidiary of Square Enix & Gakken
– focuses on advergames and mini
serious games
Produced a flash-based content for the
Bureau of Social Welfare and Public
Health of Tokyo metropolitan
government
– Video instruction and mini-games to
learn to prevent children from
dangers in household
http://www.fukushihoken.metro.tokyo.jp/
kodomo/index.html

Nintendo DS & Wii Games

Overall DS software sales in Japan
Rank Title Publisher Sales
1 New Super Mario Bros. Nintendo 5,009,673
2 Dr. Kawashima’s More Brain Training (Brain Age 2) Nintendo 4,751,569
3 Animal Crossing DS Nintendo 4,574,426
4 Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Brain Age) Nintendo 3,715,811
5 Pokemon Diamond Pokemon 2,939,405
6 Mario Kart DS Nintendo 2,827,716
7 Pokemon Pearl Pokemon 2,433,003
Eigozuke (English Training: Have Fun Improving Your
8 Nintendo 2,167,493
Skills!)
9 Big Brain Academy Nintendo 1,630,869
Otonano Joshikiryoku Training DS (Common Sense
10 Nintendo 1,561,842
Training DS)
Source: Media Create (as of 12/2007)

Brain Training Games
Brain Age (Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training) series
(DS) has sold over 17.1M copies worldwide *
*Source: Nintendo (as of 10/2007)

New market emerged
810 titles released (Dec. 2004 – Dec. 2007)
220 titles (27.2 %) are learning/practical/non-game titles
(including 61 (7.5%) titles of brain training and healthcare-related)
160
140
Learning/
120
Practical/ non-
100
game titles
80
60
Brain Age &
Big Brain Academy
40
released Entertainment titles
20
0
2004-4Q 2005-1Q 2005-2Q 2005-3Q 2005-4Q 2006-1Q 2006-2Q 2006-3Q 2006-4Q 2007-1Q 2007-2Q 2007-3Q 2007-4Q
2004 2005 2006 2007
Source: Media Create

Brain training game followers in the DS market

Nintendo’s “Touch Generations!” campaign
expands the market
Language learning
– Eigozuke (English Training: Have
Fun Improving Your Skills!) - over
2M copies sold
Quiz games with twaeked theme
– Otona no Jo-shikiryoku Training DS
(Common sense training for adults)
over 1.3M copies sold
Cooking recipes
– Shaberu! DS Oryouri Navi (DS
Cooking Navigator, Nintendo) –
0.9M copies sold

DS learning/non-game software
Travel guide, gardening, wine selection, household
bookkeeping, stock trading, all school subjects for K-
12, entrepreneurship, magic trick, guitar play, digital
book, classic music, driving license test, business
manner, accounting, job interview…
…and of course, healthcare-related titles

Diet & medical support
DS Calorie Navi (by IE Institute)
• Instruction, quiz and minigame to be
aware of healthy foods and control diet
Kenkou Kentei (by Yudo)
• Instruction and quiz how to continue
proper daily diet and exercise
Katei no Igaku (by Rocket Company)
• DS version of popular home medical
directory

Beauty care support for women
Otona no DS Kao Training (face
training for adults, by Nintendo)
– Use DS plug-in camera to monitor your
own face while training
Yumemihada: Dream Skincare
(Skincare training, by Konami)
Female Power Emergency UP! (by
Namco Bandai)
– Self-improvement support for young
working women, tied-in with women’s
magazine

Relaxation & mental care
Dokodemo Yoga (Yoga training,
by Konami)
– Video instruction and navigation to
learn Yoga
Raku Raku Shiatsu Navi (Shiatsu
acupressure navigator, Dorasu)
– Video instruction and navigation to
learn acupressure
Kokorobiksu DS Therapy
(Psychological test for mental
health improvement, by Dimple)

Eye & hand exercise support
Flash Focus (Eye training game: by Nintendo)
– Training for motion vision, hand-eye
coordination, effective vision field, vision
focus with mini-games
Right Brain Training DS - Speed Reading for
Adults (by Interchannel-Holon)
– Speed reading training with Shichida method
Ambidexter Exercise (by cyberfront)
– train ambidexterity with mini-games

Fitness support
Teku-teku Angel Pocket (Pedometer
software with data manager, by Hudson)
Duke Saraie’s Walking Navi (walking
exercise, by Dorasu)
– Video instruction & navigation to learn
health walking
Muscle Training Navigator (by Dorasu)
– Video instruction and navigation by a
famous Japanese wrestler

Fitness with Wii is becoming big…
Wii Sports sold 11M worldwide (including bundle)*
Wii Fit sold 1.9M copies in Japan (as of April
2008)**
Wii Fit (Nintendo) Family Trainer (Namco Bandai)
Source: *Nintendo, ** Media Create

XaviX PORT (2005-, SSD)
Interactive sports/fitness game console
XaviX elder care program
Used at over 1000 nursing-care facilities

Ancestors of Fitness games
Family Trainer (a.k.a. Power Pad) (1986, Bandai)

…and many other arcade games

Nintendo rules the market…
Rank Title Publisher Release Sales
Dr. Kawashima’s More Brain Training (Brain
1 Nintendo 12/2005 4,751,569
Age 2)
2 Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Brain Age) Nintendo 05/2005 3,715,811
Eigozuke (English Training: Have Fun
3 Nintendo 01/2006 2,167,493
Improving Your Skills!)
4 Big Brain Academy Nintendo 06/2005 1,519,000
Otonano Joshikiryoku Training (Common
5 Nintendo 10/2006 1,381,000
Sense Training)
6 DS Oryo-ri Navi (Cooking Navigator) Nintendo 07/2006 815,000
7 Flash Focus (Eye Training) Nintendo 05/2007 778,679
Kanji Official Examination DS for 2 Million Rocket
8 09/2006 609,683
people (Chinese character training) Company
Kanji Official Examination Kanken DS (Chinese IE
9 11/2006 580,510
character training) Institute
Motto Eigozuke (English Training 2: Have
10 Nintendo 12/2006 527,429
Fun Improving Your Skills!)
Source: Media Create (as of 12/2007)

Sales data shows the reality
# of title # of sales
Overall DS 810 90.4M
Learning/ non-game title 210 23.5M
(100,000 + ) 29 20.7M
(99,999 - 50,000) 16 1.1M
(49,999 - 10,000) 58 1.2M
(9,999 - 5,000) 41
(4,999 or less) 76
Average sales (within the - 106,914
category)
Median (within the - 8,960
category)
Source: Media Create (as of 12/2007)

Lessons to learn from the efforts in Japan
Selling your product to the DS market is very tough
For DS consumer market, you need all of the below:
– Good game
– Good customer base (or sales channel)
– Marketing budget
Dr. Kawashima’s concern: “There are potential
liability problems in serious games market. Game
companies should make a good use of researchers’
help”

Thank you
Contact:
Toru Fujimoto
tfuji@anotherway.jp
http://antherway.jp/seriousgamesjapan/