So it turns out they're now making games based on the For Dummies brand. Interesting. And a rather natural transition, I should say. Everyone knows "For Dummies", right? And pretty much everyone owns a PC. So putting one and one together...
"[...]The Casual Entertainment Label of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS - News) announces a series of For Dummies® games for the PC and the Nintendo DS™ inspired by the world famous For Dummies brand. In collaboration with developer Beanbag Studios, under license from Wiley Publishing, Inc., the publisher that has printed more than 200 million copies of For Dummies books, EA will launch For Dummies PC games in US, Canada and the UK, and a Nintendo DS game will follow in the fall in North America and select countries across Europe."
The decision of also using the DS as a platform is understandable - there's mobility involved. I would've been much more intrigued if they used the Wii's capabilities instead but hey, the DS will do just as fine for learning sudoku and poker I guess.
The games seem to be priced around the same numbers as most casual games. For example, the Poker for Dummies game stands at $19.95. Does it offer enough for 20 bucks though? I'm not sure. It is pretty well made and is educational in the For Dummies spirit, but don't think I'd buy it myself. That's beyond the point though, let's see how the games do in the upcoming year.
As these are games based on the For Dummies series, I'll leave out any ironic comments on why you'd ever need to spend 20 dollars to learn how to play Solitaire or Sudoku. Still, in a market that's oversaturated with casual games of every type you can think of, I can't help but feel that EA and Beanbag could've taken the franchise in a much more interesting direction, without losing the core idea.
Beanbag Studios // casual games // EA // educational games // For Dummies
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