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Iwatani says Pac-Man introduced women to games

Creator discusses the impact of Pac-Man on the industry.
Anne-Marie Coyle 22 December 2015

It's been a whopping 35 years since Pac-Man was first introduced to gamers and we caught up with the game's creator Toru Iwatani to talk about the history of his iconic creation.

When asked about the impact that Pac-Man has had on the games industry as a whole Iwatani-san explained how the game appealed to a wider audience, opening up video games to people that had never experienced them before, namely women and children.

"Pac-man actually opened up a new target which was women and also kids," he said. "Back in time, in the arcade days only men were actually playing.

"The big impact on the industry is Pac-Man was the tool to let people know games are actually fun," Iwatani continued. "Because I've heard from a lot of them that 'Pac Man is actually the first game I played,' so it's more like, you know, 'my first video game,' for everyone."

You can check out our full interview with Iwatani below.

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