LOS ANGELES—With the influx of fresh new gamers, thanks in large part to the popularity of mass-market game machines, the DS and the Wii, more game companies than ever are jumping on the girl gamer bandwagon. Practically every booth at this year’s E3 Media and Business Summit this year had something to offer for female gamers of various demographics.

The breadth of games ranged from Nintendo DS titles like Namco Bandai’s “National Geographic Panda” and Legacy Interactive’s “Zoo Vet Endangered Animals” to Wii titles like Electronic Arts’ “Littlest Pet Shop” (pictured above, also available on Nintendo DS) and “Boogie: Superstar.”

“We discovered with the original ‘Boogie’ that tween girls really loved the game, so we decided to focus on girls 10 to 14 years of age with this sequel,” said Charles-William Bibaud, associate producer for the game. “We worked with a local tween author and a choreographer to make sure this game has everything a tween wants, including lots of customization and the ability to use real dance moves with the Wii.”

Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, said at Nintendo’s E3 press event that 52 percent of Nintendo DS owners are now female gamers. That’s the first time that a Nintendo system has a majority of female players. And that number is huge given the fact that Nintendo has sold over 70 million Nintendo DS portables worldwide (as of the end of March). Factor in that the company forecasts a global installed base of 100 million Nintendo DS units by the end of March 2009, and there is clearly a new market for game publishers and developers to target.

On the one hand, there are gender-neutral titles that appeal just as much to females as males. When Nintendo brings “Cooking Guide: Can’t Decide What to Eat?” (working title) to Nintendo DS on November 24, it’s not aiming this title at little girls. Ubisoft’s November Nintendo DS title, “Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking” should appeal equally to both sexes. And the success of games like Electronic Arts’ “Rock Band” and Activision’s “Guitar Hero” have shown that females of all ages are open to the right gaming experience. But the bulk of titles on display at E3 were aimed at either the tween or young girl demographics.

The trend was evident last year, when Disney launched its “Disney Princess” game for the youngest girl players, and when Electronic Arts launched titles such as “EA Playground” and “Boogie” for the Wii. But the momentum is far more noticeable now.

For many years, girl games didn’t sell. “Purple Moon,” a pioneering game start-up headed by researcher Brenda Laurel, tried to make a series of games based on the girl character “Rockett” starting in 1996. But the games didn’t sell well and Purple Moon shuts its doors. Mattel bought the rights to the games in 1999. Over time, successes emerged. Her Interactive scored hits with PC titles based on the “Nancy Drew” mystery books. And The Sims, launched in 2000, was one of the first huge hits to appeal to females.

Disney Interactive Studios, which devotes about 70 percent of its games slate to Disney licensed product, has had success with games aimed at girls across multiple platforms.

During the 2007 holiday season, the company shipped more than 3.8 million copies of the widely popular “High School Musical” video games worldwide, achieving Top 20 positions on each published platform for the month of December 2007, according to NPD data.

At E3, Disney had two new games based on “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” as well as titles that tie into “Disney Faeries: Tinker Bell,” (which has an estimated 40 hours of game play in it) the new 3D CGI movie “