For Adults, By Adult: The Business of ‘Salacious Gaming’

From specialty stores to vast e-tail empires, adult novelties – be they simple, elegant objects or complex, technologically innovative devices — are easily accessible. Between B2B coverage, sexpert outreach and mainstream media fascination, sex toys are also fairly familiar.

But what about literal toys – sexy games and adult diversions? How accessible and familiar is the sex toy sub-set world of salacious gaming? We spoke to representatives from area leaders Kheper Games and Nutaku.net to get the scoop on staying relevant and staying competitive.

Not Board… Yet

Presently, what we mostly get with adult gaming are card or dice games.

There are more “mainstream” adult games, things like The Privacy Game from USAopoly. This adult party game gets players to answer “provocative questions they were afraid to ask” by securing “yes” or “no” votes. The Midnight Taboo Game from mainstream game manufacturing giant Hasbro takes a naughty spin on the classic Tabooby adding “adult-rated” prompts and answers. Other card-based games like That’s What She Said and the very popular Cards Against Humanity rely on ‘round-a-table discussions.

While companies like Hasbro, who specialize in more vanilla games, may take an occasional dip into adult fun, there are other game companies – like Kheper Games– that are situated squarely within the industry.

For instance, consider Kheper Games’ offering Advanced SEX Techniques. According to the manufacturer, Advanced SEX Techniques is “a game of erotic foreplay offering over 100,000 possible sexual adventures.” Players spin a spinner to select an upcoming adventure, including foreplay suggestions and more erotic couples’ interactions after that. Definitely not your average Hasbro payoff.

Staying Relevant

Be they mainstream or adult specific, companies producing adult games need to account for the public’s ever-shortening attention span, as well as for the burgeoning online gaming market. This requires constant innovation and consideration of market trends.

For instance, Kheper Games recently released a new line of Squishy Toys. The line includes a Dicky Squishy, a Booby Squishy and Squishy Balls.

CEO Brian Pellham explained in a press release: “Squishy Toys are hugely popular as the latest toy trend… of course we had to create adult versions of them.”

He continued, “After noticing mainstream versions in dozens of major chain stores in malls, I wondered if this would trend to adults like fidget spinners did last year. There were dozens of articles online supporting that adults are getting in on the fun as well…”

Pellham explained to YNOT that Kheper Games enjoys their most healthy sales from mall stores like Spencer’s Gifts, accounting for twenty percent of their total revenue. Interestingly, an online retailer like AdamEve.com figures in with only three to five percent of sales.

What games and products that are sold varies from store to store, as well as from state to state.

“Retailers have become more comfortable selling our adult products over the years, but still we find different stores, as well as different states, have various thresholds to what they will allow being sold in their stores,” Pellham told us. “Just the fact that we have the words ‘let’s fuck’ in one of our games’ titles sees it not sold in some markets.”

As for online selling, Pellham explained, “We just let the chips fall where they will when it comes to online sales. We seem to be growing very well with a site like Zulily most recently, and what we couldn’t get away with before we seems to be selling more of online.”

Doing It Digitally

Searching online for adult gaming fun will yield a variety of results, and there are companies in the gaming world that offer quite a varied experience. Nutaku is one such company.

Nutaku offers adult gaming across various digital platforms, each game featuring Hentai graphics.

For instance, in Nutaku’s new game, Chroma Deluxe: Sexy Hentai Girls, five different Hentai artists have contributed graphics for 240 levels of intrigue – an impressive, extensive offering! Merging puzzle and mind games with the best of Hentai graphics, Chroma Deluxe: Sexy Hentai Girls furthers the company’s ethos and brand.

The company’s public relations and media coordinator, Erica Z, explained to YNOT that “Hentai and anime fans make up a global community, so most of our fans are pretty familiar with the content. Being the largest and legitimate adult gaming platform, we’re not confused with those other gaming scam sites that unfortunately plague the internet.”

According to Z, though the company’s F2P browser games and mobile games are amongst their most popular, Nutaku offers all their titles in all digital formats. Their fantasy, adventure and RPGs are among the most popular genres the company produces.

Nutaku also looks to connect with gamers via collaborations with other sites and interesting competition games online. For instance, along with tournament sponsor YouPorn, Nutaku is currently running the “Lewd Gaming Championship,” which the company describes as “the world’s first adult gaming e-sports” competition.

This just goes to show – even a leader in the world of adult online gaming is constantly keeping their eye on the changing marketplace, innovating all the while.

Game On!

Be you of a mind to sit around a board with another couple or if you’re looking to spend some time alone to delving deep into a fantasy world of anime vixens, the world of adult gaming exists. There is a viable and vibrant segment of our industry that is working to connect with consumers on this level.

Image via Nick Benjaminsz.