Americans are obsessed with their weight. Newsstands ("10 Hot Celebrity Diets!") and grocery aisles ("Low fat! Only 100 calories! Heart Healthy!") feed our pound fixation. Not to mention we're constantly reminded that our increasingly sedentary lifestyles are contributing to record ranks of overweight and obese citizens.
Time for video games to take charge and get people off the couch.
At least that's the hope of a new slew of games catering to a player's aspirations by providing a physical side to the hours spent plunked in front of a TV. It sounds counterintuitive but it's quite possible to work up a sweat playing "Wii Tennis," a game that replicates racket swinging with motion-sensing controllers -- there are even cases of "Wii elbow." And while it wasn't intended as a fitness regimen, one fan lost 9 pounds over six weeks playing "Wii Sports" for 30 minutes a day.
Now Nintendo is releasing a game -- "Wii Fit" -- that overtly focuses on physical well-being.
The souped-up scale and digitized fitness trainer bundled in "Wii Fit" may not generate the same level of twitchy excitement among game players as "Grand Theft Auto IV," but much like Nintendo's brain-trainer "Brain Age," "Wii Fit" will certainly carry more weight with the general public -- making it one of the most significant launches of the year. There are already 9.5 million Wiis in U.S. households, according to NPD Group. It's likely that 4 million of them will contain a $90 balance-board bundle by year-end, estimates Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter.
It doesn't hurt that "Wii Fit" is already considered a runaway hit. Nintendo has sold 2 million in Japan and has had strong sales in Europe since its launch outside the U.S. in late April. There are reports that the initial shipments are already sold out at retailers such as Amazon, GameStop and Wal-Mart through pre-sales. That's thanks to one of Nintendo's largest marketing campaigns.
And like watching a friend turn into a buff gym rat, all that attention is inspiring other publishers to leap into exergames and so capitalize on the next big Nintendo trend.
There's been a healthy -- if small -- collection of fitness games in the past.
"Dance Dance Revolution," which was a hit in Japanese arcades before coming to the U.S. in 2001, has been adopted by some schools as a means to get kids moving. But while the health benefits of "DDR" were a happy accident, "Wii Fit" is one of the first games to brazenly market itself as a fitness product, says Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing at French game maker Ubisoft.
"Nintendo is setting the trend," says Key. "We come to the party asking: 'How do we take advantage of it?' " Ubisoft is currently working on a line of health games that range from mental self-improvement to weight loss and yoga instruction. One such title, "My Weight Loss Coach" for the Nintendo DS, comes bundled with a pedometer so players can upload real walking data into the game. "Everyone is interested in losing a few pounds," Key says. "Health games are here for the foreseeable future."
Everyone knows hitting the gym is the best way to lose weight, says Key, but that doesn't mean folks will work out regularly. We're busy, unmotivated and though willing to buy tapes of Billy Blanks' Tae Bo training workouts, we may not get off the couch to move along.
Video games are the next stage in the evolution of the fitness video, asserts Key. And unlike Billy, these games can measure your vital stats and offer appropriate motivation. Think of them as a cheap personal trainer.
Expect to see more from other game companies in the future.
Electronic Arts hasn't formally announced a title in the vein of "Wii Fit," even though skater wannabes can use the balance board to control a deck in "Skate." But watch this space, urges EA Sports president Peter Moore. "Health and fitness is an area where I want to see EA Sports be a leader," Moore wrote in an e-mail to Forbes.com. "I think we can play in this space."
Moore noted that there's a lot of potential for games revolving around health and well-being. He had front line experience with fitness pioneers during a stint as vice president at Reebok. "I admire what Nintendo has done with 'Wii Fit' and think it's only scratching the surface of the role games can play in making people fitter, happier and smarter," he added. "With games, we have the opportunity to make exercise fun. We can distract people. It doesn't have to feel like work when you're having fun while you're being active, staying fit and getting a workout."
"Active Life" relies on a pressure-sensitive floor mat that requires players to run or jump in place in order to control their onscreen characters through obstacle courses, mine cart rides and kayaking. Even more incentive: a character's physical appearance is linked to how well you play the game.
"Games provide a clearer structure for achieving your goals," says Jane McGonigal, a resident game designer at the Institute for the Future. "They set goals that are higher than you'd set for yourself. They make you more ambitious. Games take something that's solitary and miserable, like slogging through the gym, and transform it into something that's more social and can be integrated into your networked life."
Sports gear maker Nike agrees. Even though the Nike+, the small accelerometer that can track distance and pace of runs, isn't technically a game, it behaves like one. Runners can compete in various public or private challenges and share their achievements (like logging 100 miles) with the Nike+ community. The first time McGonigal ran with Nike+, she was so motivated by the thought of publishing her data that she shaved two minutes off her five-mile run -- a time that had stayed constant for the previous seven years. "[Games] make it possible for you to do things you never thought it possible to do," she says.
The idea of competition, measurable progress and dedicated communities is so powerful that McGonigal believes real world fitness activities will soon start borrowing from games. For instance, a massively multiplayer game like "World of WarCraft" could reward players who go for a run in order with in-game experience points, or it could require party members to walk a certain distance to make progress through an environment.
Mixing up fitness and gaming could also help the gaming industry by opening up the market to casual players. Plenty of people don't think they have the time or a reason to play games, says Ubisoft's Key.
"We need to convince them that their 20 minutes [of play] is beneficial to them."
And what's more important than improving your health?
From MSN Health
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