June 26th, 2009 by David Hinkle
Thanks to the success of games such as Wii Fit, EA Sports Active and Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009, the medical community is starting to take games seriously as a means to pump you up keep us healthy. Reuters reports that at this year’s fifth annual Games for Health Conference in Boston, a bolstered attendance brought health experts together to talk about these games, and you’d be surprised how much money these titles generated last year.
“Healthcare is 18 percent of the GDP of the United States and so games for health is probably the largest sector of activity in the serious games field long-term,” said Ben Sawyer, a co-founder of The Games for Health Project. He added, “If you add up the 18 month sales of Wii Fit and the sales of EA Sports Active, Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution and other healthy games, the worldwide retail numbers are over $2 billion.” That’s not a bad slice of the $22 billion pie that gaming lovingly prepared last year, if we may say so.
Some experts think the government should look into offering these types of games in schools to help kids learn the importance of exercise, while others think that a public service campaign should be started and backed by the president, Congress, and other federal agencies. We’d comment, but we really only play Wii Fit for the hulahoop game.
Health games big business, experts push for exergaming in schools originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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May 26th, 2008 by Phil Larsen
Filed under: Interviews, News
Speaking with the local paper merchants, Nintendo Australia’s Rose Lappin seemed to like Wii Fit’s chances against the current everywhere-but-Wii juggernaut Grand Theft Auto. After starting out with standard banter concerning the Wii and DS dominating Aussie sales charts, Lappin confidently talked up the ability of Wii Fit to snag the majority interest of gamers over the long-term.
A bunch of sweaty Australian fitness fanatics have already been doing push-ups (read: smashing guns) for almost three weeks now using Wii Fit. During that time, the Balance Board of Justice stole the top sales spot away from GTA IV (irony is funny), and it hasn’t been able to reclaim its crown.
Lappin reassures us that Wii Fit will be supported for a long time, and is also pleased to see some physical education programs in local schools using the package to transform John Q Kid into Lil’ Rambo. We’re sure this is music to the ears of many parents in Australia, who would love to keep their chil’n away from Niko Bellic and his array of misadventures.
[Via Aussie-Nintendo]
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May 24th, 2008 by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News, Interviews
According to Time’s latest interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, there may have been some genuine upending of tea tables during the making of Wii Fit, as opposed to the metaphorical kind that Shiggy prefers.
Chatting to the publication to promote the game, Miyamoto confessed that the he and his team felt “a lot of nervousness” while developing the title, and that the lofty expectations of other people caused some stress. The article also mentions that the game’s development “nearly led his 15-person development team to quit in frustration,” though we’ve no idea whether that’s Time slightly embellishing a story, or what Miyamoto actually said.
All this talk of feeling stressed, Shiggy, and yet our letters offering slow, sensual shoulder rubs still go unanswered. He can’t complain.
[Via Go Nintendo]
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November 16th, 2007 by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Friday Video
GameTrailers has a ridiculous number of
Wii Fit trailers and demos up right now. While they're all in Japanese, the videos still offer a great (if sedate) look at the fitness trainer and its different uses. We've put one up here in our weekly video spotlight, but if you have the urge to watch more, you'll have to head over there. We're not kidding when we say there's a
lot.
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November 9th, 2007 by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: Video
Look at them. Cool, calm, expessionless; the
cyborgs models in the latest
Wii Fit videos just find the non-game an
absolute breeze. To an almost
disconcerting degree, in fact.
More doughy
types such as ourselves won't look
quite as graceful while negotiating Nintendo's fitness title -- we doubt anybody
but these women could achieve that -- but that doesn't mean we won't enjoy ourselves as we perspire, pant and grimace our way through ski-jumping, heading soccer balls, and spinning hula hoops. Perfect for the
post-Christmas weight loss drive.
There's another five videos after the break, jam-packed with some
very serious Wii Fit action.
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October 23rd, 2007 by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News
It's been a while since we've seen anything on
Wii Fit, but Dengeki Online has an update that includes several screens, a shot of the
boxed set, and a video preview of the fitness title. The Japanese release date is getting closer and closer, and we can't wait to gauge public reaction to the title. Critically, of course, the nongame continues to be lauded;
Popular Mechanics recently named it one of the
top ten "gadgets" of 2007, and it's not even out yet!
Jog on past the break to get a peek at the box -- but to see the video, you'll have to head over to the
source.
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September 27th, 2007 by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Wii Warm Up
Wii Fit may
encourage you to exercise, but this bad boy
requires that you do it -- for real, none of this leaning crap -- in order to play your game of choice. Gamercize hooks into both the controller and a piece of real exercise equipment and unless you're actively working it, your controller won't function. That's one way to increase the difficulty on something.
Metroid Prime 3 too easy? Throw in a little cycling while you're at it and see how many times you miss those jumps. We're not sure just how much the Wii Gamercize system will cost you, however; though they promise to start marketing their setup for the next-gen consoles this month, the site doesn't yet seem to be
updated.
Apparently Gamercize has been around for a while, but we missed hearing about it. Now that we have, we're honestly not sure if we should just laugh or actually be interested. It could be a neat idea, but there's something about it that inspires giggles. Whatcha think?
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January 1st, 1970 by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News
As we type, the world's crazy time differences mean that Wii Fit has been available in Japan for, ooh, a few hours at least.
How will it fare? We don't know for sure, and as our closest friend isn't a De Lorean-owning, wavy-haired scientist, the best we can offer is a guess. That said, the 300,000 preorders reportedly taken by Japanese retailers prior to the game's release tell us that Nintendo has probably just conjured up another mass appeal mega-hit. If all of those preorders are honored, that would also make Wii Fit a bigger opening week success than a certain other title, but we won't dwell on that, as it's proven a touchy subject recently.
Check back with us next week for the full lowdown on precisely how many Japanese people are precariously poised on their Balance Boards.
[Via The Tanooki]
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