Game Makers Try To Widen Appeal

They skateboard, worry about their skin and watch “Beavis and Butt-head.” What the core audience for video games doesn’t do is expand, leaving game producers looking to move beyond teen-age boys.

Beyond the hoopla of new video game systems from Sega and Sony, several software developers at the Electronic Entertainment Expo that began Thursday said they are working to create new titles aimed at older - and female - players.

Some of these titles will be made for the new Sega Saturn, in some stores now for $400, and Sony PlayStation, to sell for $299 beginning in September.

But many of the new games will be for personal computers.

“It’s not a toy business any longer,” said Scott Marden, an executive at Philips Interactive Media.

Most of the software titles aimed at women and older men so far have been information-oriented. But a new generation of games, many filled with action and adventure, is trying to reach a broader demographic group.

“It’s clearly harder to get women to play games,” said Michele DiLorenzo, president of Viacom New Media.