Video games for the longest time have been dominated by men. The industry's workforce is largely comprised of young white males, and the people who play video games are usually male as well. While certain games have successfully attracted both genders (e.g. The Sims), there's no denying that it's still an industry run by men that caters its products to men. It's evident in the marketing, and it's certainly evident in the games themselves where it seems that every other character is a scantily clad female with unnatural proportions.

That said, with the casual games market becoming increasingly popular (particularly with women) and Nintendo doing its best to broaden the market with the DS and soon the Wii, there may be some hope that some balance can be injected into the industry. Now leading publisher Electronic Arts is putting a spotlight on women as well, as Chief Operating Officer David Gardner told attendees of Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival that the video game industry has "failed women" by not producing enough content suitable for them.

As reported by the BBC News, EA's own research found that 40 percent of teenage girls played video games compared to 90 percent of teenage boys; furthermore, most girls seem to lose interest in games within a year. According to Gardner, this is something that has concerned EA "for a long, long time."

"We are only reaching a small proportion - not only geographically but also genetically," he said, adding that if EA could solve the problem it "could add a billion dollars to its sales."

Indeed, attracting more women to games just for the sake of balance is valid on its own terms, but when you consider the economic opportunities doing so could create, it's something that should be top priority for the industry. The Sims certainly wouldn't have become the best selling game of all time (over 70 million copies sold) without women playing it. Gardner pointed out that 70 percent of Sims players are women under the age of 25.

"The Sims is really a game about relationships - and that's what girls want - they want relationships, they want to be able to chat," he said.

Part of the problem is that the industry has tried too hard at times to make games specifically for women, and it just hasn't been appealing to them. "They don't want 'pink games'. They are not trying to play girly games where Paris Hilton and Britney Spears go shopping and put make-up on," he explained. "Those kind of things have not been that successful."

While some in the video game industry don't like the talk of "aspiring to be Hollywood," attracting more women is clearly an area where game makers could learn from the movie folks. "The movie industry doesn't just make films for boys. Star Wars was the biggest film of all time until Titanic came along; Titanic became the biggest because women went to see it and women went to see it multiple times," said Gardner.

Ultimately the gender imbalance within the industry will have to be addressed in order to interest more women in gaming. "One of the things that is going to make games for girls happen is creative teams. It's going to be new people and experiments. Four of our 11 studios around the world are run by women. That's an important start. Investing in new and upcoming talent is critical," Gardner said.