HER Interactive adds some testosterone to its girl-friendly titles

Well-known as a girls gaming specialist with a long line of Nancy Drew titles in its portfolio, HER Interactive has switched gears and picked up the rights to The Hardy Boys. The Bellevue, Washington-based software studio hopes to broaden its customer base (which is currently skewed about 90% female) by bringing the two sleuthing franchises together in a fall 2005 PC game based on Simon & Schuster’s Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys: Super Mystery book series. HER has been producing Nancy Drew CD-ROM games for girls 10 to 15 for the past five years. July’s release, Nancy Drew: The Secret of Shadow Ranch, was number two on Amazon.com’s list of best-selling PC games for August, behind only Activision’s Doom 3.

Gizmondo taps Indie to put players in the games

In an US$8-million deal, Gizmondo has acquired Swedish gameco Indie Studios as part of its master plan to start creating exclusive content for its portable entertainment system. Hitting the European market first in Q4, the Gizmondo features Bluetooth and GPS capabilities and a built-in digital camera to incorporate a player’s physical location into the game itself. Indie plans to churn out two games in time for the launch: Colors, a long-play title in which two teams battle it out for territory; and City, a similar game designed for truncated gameplay. The Gizmondo rollout will kick off at Toys ‘R’ Us in the U.K., and a State-side launch is planned for 2005. Gizmondo recently tapped Excelsior, Minnesota-based Redline Marketing and Tartan Sales out of Dallas, Texas to handle U.S. distribution.