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To any parent who's argued with a child over shutting off a video game, John Morrissey's Game Doctor Video Game Timer may sound like salvation.
Parents can set the $30 timer to limit game play to a specified number of minutes or hours a day. At the appointed time, the password-protected timer shuts off electricity to the game console, ending all arguments about playing for just five more minutes.
Morrissey, a 79-year-old Edina inventor, figures there's large, pent-up demand for his inexpensive and easy-to-use device, which is spelled GameDr. Some surveys suggest that half the parents of preteens and young teens worry that their kids play video games too much.
But Digital Innovations of Arlington Heights, Ill., the company that has just begun selling the GameDr, expects a more mixed reaction from the owners of 88 million U.S. video game consoles.
"There are moms who say they love this, and that they know 10 people who need one," said Kara Lineal, Digital Innovations' marketing director. "And there are gamers who say it's terrible and that parents should just monitor their kids."
Morrissey isn't the first entrepreneur to try to capitalize on parents' desire to curb screen time. Already, about half a dozen similar game timer units are sold online, and Microsoft includes one in its Xbox 360 video game console. None has generated much publicity.
"If parents are that concerned about what children are doing on home video-game consoles, the chances are they don't have a console or have one with only games appropriate for their children's ages," said David Riley, director of corporate marketing at the NPD Group, a consumer product sales tracking firm in Port Washington, N.Y.
But Morrissey believes he can help parents and children find common ground.
"I have 11 grandchildren, and there are days when they use video games a little more than I would like and other days when they don't," he said. "We wanted this product to create a comfort zone for both parents and kids."
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I can't begin to tell you how pissed I would be if this thing went off just when I am saving a game. and that will never bring a 'comfort zone' for kids and parents.
