A Japanese games maker is making a killing by running a system where Apple fanboys can take their virtual girlfriends to the beach.

The whole thing is based on the premise that Apple fanboys have had to make do with virtual girls but cannot ever take them on holiday. The holidays work like a mystery tour. Scattered around the resorts are two-dimensional barcodes use augmented reality software.

This enables people to be photographed at the scene with their virtual girlfriends. The software was designed by Konami Digital Entertainment, who have worked out that there is cash to be made from young men obsessed with high-tech, manga and anime.

Now the game makers have gone a step further and teamed up with the real city of Atami, an onsen, or hot spring town, 100 kilometres southwest of the Japanese capital. Local souvenir shops in the resort town have caught on and capitalised
on the love-struck new clientele, selling Love Plus-themed souvenirs, from good-luck charms to steamed buns and fish sausages. The software that the holidays are basedon is called Love Plus, has been released only on the Japan and has sold nearly 430,000 copies.

The game has no sexual content, which is pretty much like an Apple fanboy's real life.