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Rumor: Wii Fit to lighten American wallets by $90
Nintendo did say that Wii Fit would come in at under $100. According to (a blurry snapshot of what looks like) a Gamestop release list, American gamers will be shelling out $89.99 for the game and the included Balance Board peripheral when it releases on May 19th. According to this semi-mysterious source, the preorder deposit for the game will be $10 instead of the normal $5.$90 is certainly a lot less than Europe and Australia will be paying for Wii Fit, and it seems like a fair price for the program and the hardware. But we can't help but feel slightly amused that we (and so many others) will gladly shell out almost $100 just to have our game consoles call us fat every day.%Gallery-4745% [Via GoNintendo]
Wii Exercise now a complement to Wii Fit
Rocket Company's Wii Exercise was risible when it was clearly an attempt to compete with Wii Fit with no Balance Board and no Nintendo name on the front. One alteration to the game design has changed the game from ridiculous to, well, actually pretty smart (maybe): it uses the Balance Board.In addition to the boxing and aerobics activities previously announced, Wii Exercise will make use of the board for exercises like squats, sit ups, and push ups. Now, there must be more to it, or more exercises available or something, because Wii Fit does those. If it just uses the Wii Fit peripheral (which 100% of the people who would have the Balance Board would already have) for exercises that Wii Fit does, that's dumb. But if it includes additional Balance Board training, supporting the Balance Board means that Wii Exercise is no longer a competitor to Wii Fit.
U.S. boxart for Wii Fit celebrates diversity
The final package design for Nintendo's Wii Fit bundle (game and the Balance Board) does, in fact, feature diversity through not only the ethnic backgrounds of each individual on the cover, but also through their age, and even down to the different play styles one can enjoy Wii Fit with. It's a celebration of individuality and, also, a smart way to market a product. It just shows people, predominantly displayed as they participate in the activities the bundle offers. Nothing to read, nothing to think about, just a visual representation of what you're in for should you sign up. It's a good way to sell it to the mass-market crowd that the Wii has been such a success with.%Gallery-4745%[Via NeoGAF]
Wii Fit to be tested at London's Science Museum
The Dana Centre, part of the Science Museum in London, will host an event on the 26th called "Play Away the Calories" which is centered around a certain exercise-based game. That's right: Super Team Games Wii Fit. Exercise expert Tim Cable will speak and will also measure calories burned during Wii Play sessions versus other exercises, and versus normal video games. Other speakers will discuss the obesity problem and the history of health-conscious gaming. Attendees will also get a chance to step onto the Balance Board and try out Wii Fit.We think we can already predict favorable results for the experiment, thanks to Nintendo's sponsorship of the event. It still sounds like an interesting exhibit, and it's at least an opportunity to play Wii Fit if you happen to be in town.
Nike's SportBand ready for April launch?
Make of it what you will, but Germany's own Mac Life has apparently grabbed hold of a few more details concerning that SportBand we saw sashay into the FCC's database late last month. Reportedly, the unit isn't meant to replace the Nike+iPod system; rather, it's an alternative for runners who'd prefer not to have earbuds in and a DAP on their person when logging their treks. As expected, time, speed, distance and calories will all be tracked, and each run can be captured and stored on the outfit's website after you thumb a ride back home. We're told to expect said device in April for €59.95 ($93), but only time will tell if that's an accurate assertion (and true worldwide).[Thanks, Susanne]
Family See-saw Fighting Trainer
Namco Bandai has released new screens of the events in Athletic World: Family Trainer, including a couple of new games that weren't covered in the last roundup. "Kenken Step" involves dodging stone idols that move toward the player (we think), and "See-saw Fight" is actually a kind of Twister/Simon/DDR thing in which players hit a specific spot on the Family Trainer mat in response to onscreen cues, with see-saw level representing performance.Amazon now has a boxart for the American version of the game, called Active Life: Outdoor Challenge, as well as a potential September 20th release date and a $60 price. Since it's impossible to talk about this game without comparing its sales potential to Wii Fit, we'll say this: ironically, this game's game-ness may be its biggest liability. Wii Fit makes a concerted effort to be an exercise program with some little minigames in it, focusing on things like weight tracking and exercise training and such. Outdoor Challenge is a video game that requires movement. The "expanded audience" will be more interested in the "serious" exercise tool, and gamers will still find Outdoor Challenge too non-game-like. But on the other hand, $60 is probably less than Nintendo will charge for Wii Fit.
Brain fitness software market is very fit
Say what you will about Nintendo, they know how to create new market segments. Case in point, the SmartBrains "State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008 report" which cites the Nintendo's Brain Age games as a key driver in growing the brain fitness software market to a $225 million industry, up 125% since 2005.Though Brain Age games dominate the $80 million consumer segment of the market, the game has also been a key inspiration to the 20 companies that create similar brain training tools for everything from sports teams to the military. The various brain training products have been used in over 400 elder care facilities and five successful randomized clinical trials. One product even gained FDA approval for use in stroke rehabilitation. We just hope those stroke patients don't have an accent.[Via BoingBoing]
Wii Fit will strain Australian wallets in May
Australians only have fifty-eight days (approximately five hamburgers, two milkshakes, eight orders of fries, and seven chocolate bars) before getting glute guilted into buying Wii Fit. Nintendo announced today that the fitness title, which is meant to imbue healthy lifestyles, will be coming to Australia on May 8th. That's just in time for you Aussies to give it to your mums for Mother's Day, but then again, a present like that has the potential to make any woman cry.You'd also have to really love your mom to spend $149.95 AUD ($139 USD) on her, assuming that she already owns a Wii. Even the thought of spending that on yourself is daunting for a nongame, although the pricing isn't completely unexpected -- after all, the UK and European prices equate to about the same.Does that make it okay, though? We suspect the answer to that is a resounding "no." Gallery: Wii Fit
Ubisoft reveals DS pedometer for 'My Weight Loss Coach'
Vying for a portable-gaming equivalent to the Wii Fit audience, Ubisoft has announced that their Nintendo DS title My Weight Loss Coach will ship with a pedometer peripheral, that will allow the game to track your movement throughout the day, independent of the game or DS.The special pedometer uses an internal battery to keep track of its movement while separate from the DS. Users carry the device around with them in their pocket. Once plugged into the GBA slot of the user's DS, the device then transfers that data collected into My Weight Loss Coach, which factors in the movement into its daily health calculations.Due out this summer, My Weight Loss Coach sounds like an interesting addition to Ubisoft's growing lineup of non-games targeted at the casual audience. And who doesn't love pedometers? Gallery: My Weight Loss Coach
A week on the Balance Board
Not literally, of course -- really it's more like "A week containing many 30-minute sessions on the Balance Board." Game|Life's Chris Kohler has joined 4cr's Vinnk in long-term Wii Fit experimentation, though in a slightly different style. While Vinnk is updating us weekly with his weight loss progress, Kohler wrote up an entire week of gameplay in a detailed diary. Somehow he thought a week of exercise was a good idea immediately after GDC, which is basically crazy.In addition to providing some anecdotal data about the efficacy of the game (i.e. how sore is he after a week), Kohler's diary offers an excellent overview of the game's modes, since every activity and option he explored is detailed in this diary. Surprisingly, the game got Kohler more interested in exercising outside of the house even as he continued to play Wii Fit. Miyamoto must feel like he got a phantom tummy-rub just now.
Sega Toys' Body Trainer headset coaxes you into working out
Oh sure, we've seen gadgets used as motivational tools before, but Sega Toys is apparently banking on you not being a hothead. Otherwise, you just might fling its Body Trainer headset from your dome as soon as you hear "please exercise a little bit harder" over your incessant panting. Nevertheless, those with oodles of self-control may actually benefit from having a personal trainer (of sorts) in their ear while working out, and by monitoring the wearer's heartbeat via a sensor, it can blurt out messages at the appropriate time to help users through their session(s). Reportedly, this nifty exercise buddy is set to launch in Japan this April for ¥5,775 ($54), and while we've no idea if this thing is destined for US soil, we can definitely see it being used more so for its musical abilities and less for its steadfast encouragement.[Via CNET]
Wii Fit pricing revealed for Europe
Though Europeans will get their hands and feet on Wii Fit as soon as April 25th, a month before us Yanks, they'll pay a premium for that privilege -- £69.99 (approx. $138) in the UK and €89.99 (approx. $133) in the rest of Europe. These price points are a stark contrast to the results from a recent IGN poll asking readers how much they would be willing to pay for the exercise software and balance board peripheral. Of the 6116 people surveyed, 27.6% stated that they would not pay above $49.99, the lowest-price poll option, 15.9% claimed the same for $59.99, 18.9% chose $69.99, 22.5% set their limit at $79.99, and 7.4% still showed interest at the $89.99 and $99.99 marks.It can be argued that European gamers are used to paying much higher prices than their North American counterparts and that Guitar Hero III bundles were also priced at £69.99/€89.99, but that's still a lot more expensive than how much we expected. At the recent Game Developers Conference, Nintendo of America mentioned that the Wii Fit bundle would be under $100 for the US. %Gallery-4745%
GDC08: Exercise - the MMO?
Early this afternoon during Erik Bethke's discussion of the cross-over between Virtual Worlds and Massively multiplayer games, he hit on a fantastic idea that I'd love to see explored. What if you could incentivize people to do things that were good for them by giving them goal structures? Players provide goals for themselves all the time in ostensibly 'goal-less' virtual worlds, from Second Life to Club Penguin. In an aside, Bethke noted that assigning goal structures - reasons to play - is actually a fairly easy part of game design. Though it takes some effort to make those goals fun and interesting, working them up in the first place is a fairly trivial piece of work. So what if you could make eating right and exercising fun by leveling up and earning loot?%Gallery-16369%
Wii Fit for weight loss?
4cr's Vinnk is conducting a bold experiment: attempting to lose weight with Wii Fit. Nintendo's latest flagship product is designed as an exercise tool, but we admit skepticism in the efficacy of leaning as exercise. We're hoping that Vinnk will see definitive results of some kind or another, for science.While he's not going for a strict scientific approach, the methodology should be informative and representative of most users' experience. He says that he doesn't plan to make any other lifestyle changes in order to lose weight (though "with any fitness program there will be the desire to eat healthier and possibly less"), so the primary experimental factor will be Wii Fit. He'll report on his results every week.We find journal projects like these fascinating, not just because we are fat and curious about Wii Fit, but because there's something quite cool about statistical tracking of someone's video game experience.%Gallery-4745%
Wii Fit dated for North America, PAL regions
Since it was picked up by more than a million consumers in Japan, we have been impatiently waiting for news on Wii Fit's release Everywhere Else. Our dumbbells, caked in dust after our last workout in 1999, have been brought out of retirement, and the leotard has just arrived back from the cleaners. We are ready to become fine, chiselled specimens.Except ... we'll have to wait a bit first. Until either April (if you're in North America) or June (for those in a PAL region), to be precise. An April release date in North America is actually quite a pleasant surprise. Not only does it mean we can continue living our gluttonous lifestyles for at least another couple of months, but it's also a little sooner than we initially expected.
Campaigner calls Wii exercise in schools 'another gimmick'
It seems the school is still the eminent source of name calling, as the Wii, which has managed to shrug off all the "little fad" comments thus far, has been subjected to yet another "another gimmick" label. This time, however, it's in relation to the UK Department of Health's endorsement of an in-school "active" games scheme designed by the Droitwich and Worcester City School Sport Partnership. Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, was unconvinced by the program's weight-loss merits, saying, "Pupils would be far better doing serious competitive sports and games than this sort of thing." Channel 4 reports that this sort of thing has already been implemented in five schools in Worcestershire as "virtual PE," with the hopes that active gaming would lure children to participate in other physical exercise. Seaton, however, believes it "looks like another gimmick," one that's "pandering to the views of the physically idle." The Department of Health argued that the Wii makes for a good "first step" towards other forms of exercise, though failed to mention the benefits of the many, many steps required to excel in the physical strenuous Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party. Mind you, the embarrassing view of the physical idol in school would likely result in even more nasty name calling.[Via GamesIndustry.biz]
Canadian students compare Wii to traditional exercise
We've all worked up a sweat while playing the Wii, whether it be during sessions of WarioWare: Smooth Moves or Wii Sports (or any of the other numerous titles that ask you to get physical). We figured we were just unhealthy and that any normal person with any kind of regular physical activity in their life would just laugh as our doughy physique cried "mercy" after just minutes of throwing down in Wii Sports: Boxing.Canadian students from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia decided that they wanted to see how a workout with the Wii compares to more conventional exercises. These students could care less about scientific research apparently (or don't read Wii Fanboy, either of which being a crime against humanity), as took matters into their own hands and came up with an exercise scheme. Their conclusion, much like that of the scientists mentioned previously, was that although the Wii certainly did increase cardiovascular activity, it in no way was intense enough for them.Hopefully, whenever Wii Fit releases, the Wii will be a more viable solution for serious health nuts. Until that day, we'll just keep having fun with our low impact sessions of Wii Sports.[Thanks, gusto! Do you so happen to be an emcee?]
Rumor: Wii Fit into Nintendo's release schedule for May 20th?
1UP, like some other sites on the Internet, put an article up about Wii Fit's mega-awesome performance in Japan. It includes the requisite Photoshop suggesting that Shigeru Miyamoto is flush with wealth, of course. But their writeup of the news has a little something extra: a release date. If the information casually dropped in the post is accurate, we will be stepping onto and off of things as soon as May 20th.We're confused and frightened by the lack of any official release information regarding this game. Nintendo hasn't even announced a year for the North American release. Wii Fit is kind of the "next big thing" in expanded-audience Wii gaming, and thus we assume that they plan to, you know, sell it. We find a potential release date soothing. And why would 1UP just pull a date out of nowhere like that? The specificity lends credibility to the claim. Anyway, May seems as good a time as any! %Gallery-4745%
UK McDonald's chief blames game industry for obesity
We're used to scientists, the government and even beverage companies taking the game industry to task for contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic. But now there's a new, even more unlikely source using gaming as an obesity scapegoat -- McDonald's.Talking to the London Times, McDonald's UK chief executive Steve Easterbrook said games are part of a "lifestyle element" that has led to a rise in childhood obesity. "There's fewer green spaces and kids are sat home playing computer games on the TV when in the past they'd have been burning off energy outside," he said.To be fair, Easterbrook didn't lay the blame completely at gaming's feet. "The issue of obesity is complex," he said, while also acknowledging that the government, the food industry, and good old personal responsibility have their part to play in solving the problem. Still, any organization that serves a "deluxe breakfast" with 59 grams of fat should be very careful when shifting the blame.
CNN explores the Wii as rehab
Considering the Wii has been on shelves for over a year, we wouldn't call this "breaking news," but mainstream media hasn't ever been all that informed about gaming. Still, it's nice to see the console being covered from an angle other than "video games turn your child into a psycho killer." That and a 30-minute session of Wii three times a week can really help in the physical recovery process. It really is a wonderful little system.See also: Video games more effective than medication for pain?[Via Go Nintendo]
