The anomaly of Nancy Drew games
Some of you out there may not even know the Nancy Drew adventure series exists, but like High School Musical, a lot of other people do. So much so that the latest Nancy Drew game -- there have actually been 16 so far -- is currently at the #13 spot on Amazon.com's Top Seller list for video games. A bunch of hardware is higher on the list, but the only software beating Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek is Resident Wii-vil 4, Mario Party 8 and Pokémon Diamond. The latest Nancy Drew is even beating recently released titles which don't even make it into the Top 25. Poor Pokémon Pearl is at #24, is it the name? Should they have called it something more masculine?
Yes, it is Amazon.com, so it isn't the greatest tracker of what's really selling out there, but it is interesting to note. And, for all we know, gamers are too embarrassed to buy the game at retail so they shop online. The Nancy Drew series is on its 16th episode, somebody has obviously got to be buying it, and the games actually are good old-fashioned adventure titles. Anybody out there who plays this series consistently care to explain the appeal? These Nancy Drew games feel like they have a lot in common with the casual games market. We hear there's a whole independent games movement out there too. There's a lot of money being made in software beyond the $15 - $25 million dollar projects we talk about every day.
