Nintendo Reveals The Secret to Animal Crossing’s Success: More Women
Animal Cross: New Leaf has been one of the most successful games on the Nintendo 3DS. Many chalk it up to the fact that people just like games that are slower-paced and allow you to customize everything, but Nintendo recently revealed the truth behind it at GDC: diversity. Half of the development team was made up of women, an anomaly in the game development industry. Aya Kyogoku, the woman in charge of directing New Leaf, said that it opens “you up to hearing a greater variety of ideas and sharing a greater diversity of ideas.” The full Wired interview with the team is incredibly fascinating, so I highly advise you check it out.
Even Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said, “It’s often said that female casual gamers don’t need dedicated hardware, and yet here they are reaffirming the value of these machines.” They discovered that gamers everywhere were buying Animal Crossing, not just men, so they changed the development team to suit that. In the process of doing so, they found that diversity not only makes your games better… it makes everyone feel welcome too — developers and gamers alike.