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chased by toy giant Mattel Inc. in March.
Then again, making money wasn't the sole motivation for launching Purple Moon, said co-founder Brenda Laurel, who served as the company's vice president of design.
"The social motivation was creating an environment where girls could get comfortable with technology and believing it would increase their options in careers and other opportunities later on," Laurel said in a recent interview. "By the time they get to fifth grade, girls either become comfortable with {computers} and make it part of their lives, or they fall off the wagon. If we're going to make an intervention where technology becomes part of their palette as human beings, you have to do it before they hit their teens."
But companies such as Purple Moon have had to labor for years against the forces that attract many girls to dolls while their brothers gravitate toward guns. Software developers have long profitably exploited boys' impulses--especially in the marketing of games that rely on competitiveness and images of violence to provide their punch. But so far, none has found a reliable or profitable way to exploit the very different impulses of girls.
Mattel, the only company that can claim significant profits from selling software for girls, relies on the most famous doll of all time for its success in that market. Barbie's software spinoffs are the five best-selling games for girls, according to PC Data's ranking of games based on 1998 sales figures.
"There aren't that many great brand names in girls' stuff besides Barbie," said Seema Williams, a Forrester Research analyst who focuses on kids and teens. "It helps a lot if you spin off from a brand name, because you're not going to spend $20 million developing a brand name that girls are going to outgrow in two years."
Mattel has become a master at marketing software for girls. Not only do its Barbie titles dominate the top-five rankings, but it also produces the next five top-selling games--four of which are based on the storybook character Madeline that Mattel picked up when it bought Learning Co. last year.
Mattel says it has tried to capitalize on girls' innate interest in playing with dolls to sell them software.
"We are able to translate established...