Jewel Pet SNS for school girls mixes real world items

Written by: Rebecca Milner on October 16, 2008 at 4:32 am | In DIGITAL LIFE | 2 Comments

Tamagotchi aren’t the only toys to link to SNS specifically created for character loving school kids. Jewel Pet, a collaboration between Sanrio and Sega Toys, now has its own web community called Web Gurumi, launched on October 2nd.

Each Jewel Pet, a stuffed animal designed for young girls, comes with a unique serial number that serves as a login code to the site. Here pet owners have access to their own virtual room where they appear as young witches and can play with animated versions of their pets.

Of course the more real toys you buy, the cuter your virtual room becomes.

Web Gurumi also has SNS functions such as chat and email and is set in a larger “magical world” where users can go shopping and play games.

While anything pink and cuddly for school girls hardly seems an obvious topic for a blog with a tech trend bent, we can’t help but notice the number of these things that are becoming more and more tech-oriented—paving the way for a generation of girls who can move seamlessly between cuddly and digital worlds.

Tags: Children, Sanrio, Sega, SNS, Toys, Web 2.0
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Hitokara at Home bridges phones with home karaoke

Written by: Michael Keferl on October 6, 2008 at 3:58 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE | 1 Comment

Despite dropping numbers, karaoke is still the official after-school pastime of Japanese youth. Besides being a technology driver by being early adopters of mobile phone, e-money, and interactive loyalty programs, karaoke also plays a large role in the music industry by upping the demand for karaoke-friendly tunes.

Last year Sega released their mobile karaoke service called Hitokara, meaning (karaoke for one). The free mobile phone service began with 35,000 karaoke songs available for download, ranging from pop tunes to traditional Japanese mucis, but has since expanded to include over 43,000 free songs for it’s 1.5 million members. Now Sega has made a real world accessory for its digital service called Hitakara at Home, which connects the mobile phone to enhance the karaoke experience.

The Hitokara at Home is a miniature karaoke box including speakers, microphone and an LED lit mirror ball for when the lights go down. Users can connect the mobile phones to the device, choose the songs, and rock out at home or with a friend. Consult your doctor before mixing with karaoke pills!

Tags: Entertainment, Karaoke, Sega
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Homestar EX from Sega Toys

Written by: Michael Keferl on June 19, 2008 at 6:55 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE | 8 Comments

UPDATE: The official name has now become the Homestar EXTRA, and it’s coming out in December 2008!
UPDATE #2: The Homestar Extra is now available online

For our first post from the first day of the 2008 International Tokyo Toy Show, we are proud to introduce the latest in Sega Toys’ Homestar home planetarium series. Yeah, they just debuted the Homestar Spa in the last couple of weeks, but the Homestar EX is poised to be the Pro-version of the…err…Homestar Pro? (product page link)

Though it won’t be released until the end of the year, the Homestar EX uses large star discs, is a much higher-quality home planetarium than anything else in the Homestar series, and is bright enough to see the stars clearly with the lights on in the room! Other new features include a digital multi-function remote control, and a truly random (not fixed) shooting star function.

Of course, such high celestial technology doesn’t come cheap. While no price has been determined, the Homestar EX is expected to sell for over $800 when released.

Update: Now available here!

Tags: Homestar, Homestar EX, Sega, Tokyo Toy Show, Toys
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Splead Casino at Sega GiGO offers real fake gambling

Written by: Michael Keferl on November 18, 2007 at 10:25 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE | No Comments

Despite its taboo status, gambling is in fact alive and well in Japan. About $300 billion are wagered in Japan every year on various games including pachinko, lotteries, and races (horses, boats, motorcycles, and bicycles). With the exception of pachinko, these are all run by national and local governments, including betting on J-League soccer through Toto. With the average Japanese person losing $400 per year on gaming (twice the American average), these are big businesses.

As a result, the dream of real casino play remains a dream here, but that doesn’t mean we all can’t pretend! This year, the Sega GiGO game center in Shibuya opened Splead, a casino on the fourth floor that, if it were real, would be a pretty nice place to play.

On the surface, Splead seems like a pretty silly idea. It looks exactly like a real casino, complete with uniformed staff and a professional setup, but lacks the most popular side effect of gambling: Winning money.

When you come for the first time you have to create an account and a membership card. To play casino games, dollar-denominated chips are purchased for the rough equivalent of their real-world values, so ¥1000 = $10 in chips. At a $5 minimum and $100 maximum bet for blackjack, these are actually pretty high stakes.

Due to gambling laws, chips cannot be exchanged into cash when you finish playing. I sat down at a blackjack table with $30 in chips, quickly turned it into $1,200, and then felt immediate disappointment when I couldn’t actually do anything with them besides play more games. It’s possible to keep the chips on your account for the next time you come, but you have to pay storage fees to get them back at the rate of ¥1,000 for $100 in chips. Thus, you have all of the negative points of losing, none of the positive (monetary) points of winning, and have to pay to keep your winnings in the end anyway. Seems crazy? I thought so too, but not anymore.

In the end, Splead differs very little from the average video game where you earn points that have no value outside of the game itself. In this system, players are paying for the added fun of having a real dealer, fellow players, well-mixed drinks, and ambiance. Splead is purely for the entertainment of people who like the fantasy of gambling, but in a more controlled situation. Even the poker tournaments are played using video screens due to the fact that, as one staff member said, “There are many people who wouldn’t know how to deal the cards.”.

The only games that allow you to take your chips out are the video gambling and the amazingly high-tech video horseracing game. Of course, in the end, the chips can only be used to win more chips in the other games on the next floor.

If Japan does eventually legalize gambling, Splead’s model (sans storage fees) would be a good one to follow when it comes to atmosphere, friendly staff, and great service. If run by the government, casinos would most likely be as lame as the ones I’ve been to in Canada and New Caledonia, geared less towards entertaining the guests than to the core business of taking their money. Splead is about having fun and, judging by the decent number of customers there, is doing something right.

Tags: Game Centers, gaming, Sega
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Tokyo Toy Show 2007 coverage with video and pics!

Written by: Michael Keferl on June 29, 2007 at 2:59 am | In DIGITAL LIFE | 7 Comments

The CScout Japan team went to the Tokyo Toy Show 2007 today, and had an amazing time checking out all the newest toys and gadgets from Japan for this year. There are many cool things coming out, and we’ll go into much more detail over the weekend, but today is just a basic overview. As usual, we were most impressed with Sega, especially their lifestyle gadgets like the Homestar Pro, but Bandai and Takara Tomy were right up there as well. Konami is a definite must-see, but only because they have the best models ;-)

We also got to see the Puchi Puchi virtual bubblewrap up close, as we mentioned in this post. For some reason there was a major surplus of three kinds of items: Helicopters, air guitars (the kind not made of air, which was confusing), and models of Tokyo Tower (we saw at least five). No shortage of girls either! Check out the rough video coverage below:

We can’t possibly fit everything in here at once, so we’ll cover our favorite items in the coming days, one-by-one. Click below to jump and see some eye-candy from the show before we unveil some exclusive pics of some very cool Japanese products coming your way soon…

Click here for more

Tags: Bandai, Homestar, Sega, Takara Tomy, Tokyo Toy Show, Toys
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS