Trigger Happy
course, Lara’s contribution to the PlayStation brand itself cannot be overestimated. An exclusivity deal with Sony ensured that the next three games appeared only on PlayStation, and a next-generation Tomb Raider game will appear on PlayStation2 in 2002.
These days, videogames generate a large spin-off industry of playing cards, posters, strategy guides, clothes and plastic figurines. In the summer of 1999, sales of Bandai’s Duke Nukem action figures soared, with the majority of purchasers being women. (Duke is the testosterone-dripping digital hero of humorous shoot-the-aliens games. He sports a blond crop and mirrored shades and uses arch catchphrases such as, “It’s time to chew gum and kick ass!”) Bandai claimed to have received an “anxious” call from a woman after her local store ran out of Nukem figures. According to their press release, she claimed that 1990s women were turning away from Victoria’s Secret and Tupperware parties in favor of Duke Nukem evenings. Even if this is just a tease, it is illuminating that Bandai feels the potential female audience is large enough for them to make such a claim.
Game companies have also cultivated strong commercial links with the UK’s biggest game, soccer. Videogame companies pay stars like Michael Owen
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