Thanks to the Nintendo DS, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima is now a
household name for anyone who has one of the Brain Age training games. To date,
the Brain Age series of games have sold 17 million copies worldwide and is
largely credited with bringing a whole new, untapped market to the Nintendo DS.
Given the amazing sales of the short game titles, Dr.
Kawashima should be a rich man – but he isn’t. According to the AFP report, royalties from the sales
of games based on Kawashima’s brain research amount to 2.4 billion yen ($22
million), of which the 48-year-old professor is entitled to up to half, but
taken none for himself.
“Not a single yen has
gone in my pocket,” said Kawashima. “Everyone in my family is mad at me but I
tell them that if they want money, go out and earn it.”
Nintendo originally designed the DS as an interim solution
between the Game Boy Advance and a next-generation handheld system. Nintendo
president Satoru Iwata, however, had an idea to incorporate Dr. Kawashima’s
research into a DS program. The result was Brain Age, a game that successfully appealed
to both traditional and casual gamers with its simple, but stimulating puzzle
activities.
Kawashima appears to be satisfied with his annual salary of
around 11 million yen ($100,000) for his own purposes, and directs his Brain
Age royalties to research and the construction of new laboratories dedicated to
Tohoku University’s Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer.
Ironically, Kawashima does not allow himself any time away
from his research to play his own brain training games. In fact, he even
restricts the game time of his four sons to only one hour every weekend.
Kawashima is currently studying the brain development of
youth, and says that he does not know how children’s minds are affected by long
hours of gaming.
“What is scary about games is that you can kill as many
hours as you want. I don't think playing games is bad in itself but it makes
children unable to do what they should do such as study and communication with
the family,” he said.
While some may categorize Brain Age as a mixture of
education and entertainment – or edutainment – Kawashima believes that the two
concepts should be mutually exclusive.
“Having fun is not studying. Making them study is not to
entertain children but to pressure them to make efforts. People fall to lower
and lower places unless they are driven to go higher," added Kawashima.