Software:Barbie Fashion Designer

From HandWiki
Short description: 1996 video game
Barbie Fashion Designer
Mac OS cover for the game
Developer(s)Digital Domain
Publisher(s)Mattel Media
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Mac OS
ReleaseNovember 1996

Barbie Fashion Designer is a dress-up computer game developed by Digital Domain and published by Mattel Media for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS in 1996.[1] The game allows players to design clothing and style outfits. Players can then print off their designs and create clothing for their real-world Barbie dolls.[2] Barbie Fashion Designer was the first commercially successful video game made for girls.[3][4] After its success, many other girl games would be made, leading to the girls' games movement.[3]

Gameplay

Players can design clothing and outfits through selecting different themes, clothing, colors, and patterns from various menus. Once players have designed their outfit, Barbie models their outfit on a 3D runway.[4] The software also came with special paper-backed fabric, markers, and fabric paint so that the designs could be printed off and made into clothes for real-life Barbie dolls.[2] The game complemented the way young girls already liked to play with their Barbie dolls and this has been said to have led to its success.[4]

Release and reception

Barbie Fashion Designer was the ninth best-selling PC game of 1996 in the United States, with 393,575 CD-ROM units sold[5] and $14,044,994 sales revenue.[6] Barbie Fashion Designer went on to sell over 500,000 copies in its first two months of release and over 600,000 within the first year of its release, outselling other popular games at the time such as Quake and Doom.[3][2][4] According to PC Data, which tracked computer game sales in the United States, Fashion Designer sold 351,945 units and earned $14 million by the end of 1996. It was the country's sixth-best-selling computer game of that year.[7] Commenting on its performance that year, a writer for Next Generation wrote that "Barbie Fashion Designer has done an excellent job at expanding the market and scored well with the female population."[8] It was also the top-selling SKU for Christmas 1997.[9] According to Joyce Slaton of GameSpot, "Mattel's successful innovation [was] placing Barbie Fashion Designer on toy aisles rather than in the boy-dominated software section in toy stores".[10]

Despite this success, the game has received criticism for using stereotypical feminine themes. Purple Moon founder Brenda Laurel has said the game “…perpetuated a version of femininity that was fundamentally lame”.[11] However, its commercial success made it a catalyst for the girls' games movement and proved there was a market for video games designed for young girls.[4][3]

Jan Davidson of Davidson & Associates said of the game, "It's interesting how that product sold more in a shorter time than any other product in history, including the best selling games! And it's just a niche for girls (there aren't too many little boys playing with that title, I don't think). So that tells you something. It was an incredible hit from a sales perspective. It also tells us how licensed characters can sell product."[12] In 2023, the game was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.[13]

See also

  • List of Barbie video games

References

  1. ↑ "Barbie Fashion Designer (Mac)". FEMICOM. http://www.femicom.org/collection/barbie-fashion-designer-mac/. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Barbie Fashion Designer CD-ROM" (in en). Bullock Texas State History Museum. www.thestoryoftexas.com. https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/artifacts/barbie-fashion-designer. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Dickey, Michele D. (September 1, 2006). "Girl gamers: the controversy of girl games and the relevance of female-oriented game design for instructional design" (in en). British Journal of Educational Technology 37 (5): 785–793. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2006.00561.x. ISSN 1467-8535. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Cassell, Justine; Jenkins, Henry (1998). From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262032582. OCLC 42328580. https://archive.org/details/frombarbietomort00cass. 
  5. ↑ Screen Digest. Screen Digest. 1997. p. 132. https://books.google.com/books?id=51nvAAAAMAAJ. 
  6. ↑ "Top Selling CD-ROMs Ranked by Unit Sales, in 1996". The Wall Street Journal Almanac 1998 (Ballantine Books): 486. 11 November 1997. ISBN 9780345405210. https://books.google.com/books?id=b42ktZ4_UAgC. 
  7. ↑ Miller, Greg (March 3, 1997). "Myst Opportunities: Game Makers Narrow Their Focus to Search for the Next Blockbuster". Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-03-03-fi-34360-story.html. 
  8. ↑ "1996 PC Best Sellers". Next Generation. February 26, 1997. http://www.next-generation.com:80/news/022697a.chtml. 
  9. ↑ "GrrlGamer: GameGrrl". May 20, 2001. http://www.grrlgamer.com:80/gamegrrl10.htm. 
  10. ↑ Slaton, Joyce. "The Games Girls Play: Who Says Girls are Afraid of Mice?". GameSpot. http://gamespot.com:80/features/girlgames/index.html. 
  11. ↑ Donovan, Tristan. Replay: The History of Video Games. Yellow Ant. 2010.
  12. ↑ "A Conversation With Jan Davidson". 2000-08-16. http://www.childrenssoftware.com/jandavidson. 
  13. ↑ "World Video Game Hall of Fame Inducted Games". https://www.museumofplay.org/exhibits/world-video-game-hall-of-fame/. 

Further reading

  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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