JAPAN: Sega unleashes the 'Toylet', a video game to be used in restrooms that is based on the volume and strength of a user's urine stream

Record ID: 344138

  • Title: JAPAN: Sega unleashes the 'Toylet', a video game to be used in restrooms that is based on the volume and strength of a user's urine stream
  • Date: 19th January 2012
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (JANUARY 18, 2011) (REUTERS) LOBBY IN SEGA HEADQUARTERS ROTATING MODEL OF MAIN CHARACTER OF SMASH-HIT SEGA VIDEO GAME, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG "TOYLET" PRODUCER AT SEGA, HIROTAKA MACHIDA, WALKING TO DEMONSTRATION MODEL OF URINAL VIDEO GAME AND TURNING IT ON WATER COMING OUT FROM STATUE TO SIMULATE URINATION MACHIDA OPERATING MODEL WATER FROM STATUE HITTING TARGET IN URINAL VIDEO GAME MONITOR ABOVE URINAL
  • Embargoed: 3rd February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAAU9HDV8SGM1OBMX5Z21BP6YAA
  • Story Text: Video games veteran Sega is back in town, filling an odd gap in the market, and now the men of Japan can start gaming while they pee.
    Three years ago this - the "Toylet" - was just a pipe-dream for developers in Sega's research department, the result of an unusual brainstorming session.
    "One of our planners wondered whether we could turn urine -- you know, pee -- into a game. After putting our heads together, we came up with the concept that men, you know, have their own built-in games controllers. So we thought let's make some games using those," Hirotaka Machida, the console's lead producer.
    Users target their urine at a sensor inside the toilet which measures volume and speed.
    Sega's software then matches that to progress in a selection of five urinal video games; whether battling it out in a ring with snot, answering quiz questions or blowing up a cartoon reporter's skirt with gusts of wind.
    At 150,000 yen ($2000 U.S. dollars) for a single unit, Machida said the plan had been to avoid the mass market; instead, targetting entertainment arcades and a younger age bracket.
    But after testing in pubs and restaurants, the plan changed again when developers found the games proved a success with the country's older generation.
    "Well, at first we thought it would really only be young people who would like this kind of game. But in places where there are a lot of old folks, like pubs, we're seeing this phenomenon where people are enjoying playing with it, regardless of age. At the moment we're getting good reviews -- everyone is enjoying themselves whatever age they may be," Machida said.
    And that comes in handy in the greying nation where the demographic is steadily shifting in favour of the elderly.
    At the Yourounotaki pub chain, franchises are fitted with Toylets across Japan.
    "I look forward to standing there and seeing how much comes out, you know, how much you've got in you," one elderly customer, Ishii Shirai, said at a pub in northern Tokyo.
    "It's great fun. By that I mean, well, it's a bit of a weird thing to say, but the first time I tried it I peed 500 millilitres; now it's six hundred-and-something. I really felt I'd made it, I felt a great sense of achievement," said another unidentified elderly customer.
    But Sega's brand of toilet humour also proved to be a hit with pub staff.
    "Well, there's a target in the urinal so everybody aims their pee at that, and they don't create a mess when they use it," pub manager, Takeshi Yamazaki, said.
    An infra-red device cuts off play if gamers stray too far from the toilet, keeping users close to the urinal and reducing the amount of mess, according to Sega.
    Toylets rolled out on general release across Japan this month, and Sega's producers say they now have their sights set on a global expansion plan later in 2012.
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