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Educational Computer Games Could Soon Make a Comeback
 Published:
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Developers must compete with snazzy video games
Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Four years ago, when Gary Church purchased "Reader
Rabbit" software for his then-3-year-old, Connor, the boy spent
at most an hour using it. Instead, he hankered after something he
had already become adept at: playing video games on the computer
and the Xbox game console.
Now that learning-to-read CD is collecting dust with a handful of
other educational software, outnumbered 10-to-1 by Connor's expanding
video game collection.
Like most parents, Church wants to help his son get ahead in school,
but the San Jose father, a college math teacher, says he hasn't
found any educational software worthy of even $20 despite repeated
searches online and in stores.
"I'm not too happy with the choices. None of them seem to capture
the kids' attention as much as the non-educational games,"
Church said while looking for a "Mario Kart" racing game
for his son's new Nintendo DS handheld at a Best Buy store.
But ambitious new products are in the pipeline, aiming to better
reach a highly connected, multitasking, gadget-laden, mobile-oriented,
Internet-reliant set of youngsters. Some programs will adopt more
intricate 3D graphics or other game-like elements. Others will add
more Web-based features or include versions for portable gizmos.
Reinvigorating sales won't be easy, analysts say.
Retail sales of educational software in the U.S. peaked in 1999,
hitting $605 million, and have been declining each year since, according
to The NPD Group market research firm. Sales sank to $128 million
in 2005.
The gritty battle for shriveling retail attention proved fatal for
some, but surviving vendors -Microsoft and smaller rivals - also
blame the industry's own slow pace of innovation.
"In the 1990s, there was a one-size-fits-all mentality, and
'Reader Rabbit' and 'Carmen Sandiego' were big hits. They fit the
customers' needs at that time," said Jessica Lindl, vice president
of marketing for Riverdeep Inc., which now owns both those classic
titles after a string of acquisitions. "But the customer has
changed dramatically over the last five years, and we were not meeting
our customers needs."
Adding to the challenge was the proliferation of free information
available over the Internet.
But the desires of families to find ways to help their children
with homework or to get a leg up in school have not changed, especially
as students today are subjected to more standardized tests.
"If you give parents a reason to purchase a title for their
kids, they will," said Chris Swenson, a software industry analyst
at NPD.
He cited how Microsoft was able to capture 14 percent of the educational
software market within a year of releasing "Student 2006"
- a comprehensive program for middle and high school students that
combines the Encarta encyclopedia with other homework tools.
The software is based on real school curricula, weaves in quick
access to Internet searches, and provides multiple solutions to
how the student could solve, say, a math problem.
"You could find the answer to what's five times three on Google,
but you can't solve quadratic equations there," Bartholomew
said.
"Consumers are very used to the next, next thing now, and they're
not seeing the next new thing in educational software," said
Leslie House, Knowledge Adventure's senior vice president of product
development.
The subsidiary of Knowledge Holdings Inc. hopes a new draw will
be its forthcoming "JumpStart World" - the company's most
ambitious project ever, based on extensive scientific research and
consumer market studies.
The program, due for release in the first quarter of 2007, is a
major rework of the company's well-known "JumpStart" products
and will even be the first to be sold directly online to consumers
rather than solely via retail stores, House said.
Unlike its predecessors, "JumpStart World" will not be
a static product that stays the same once installed on a computer.
It will be able to send e-mailed updates to parents to let them
know what level little Johnny is on and what subject areas he excelled
in or needed more help.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/08/08/100bus_e1games001.cfm
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