Nintendo users are heading for something of a fall. Especially if they take up the Wii Fit game that is due out in December, billed as a set of bathroom scales that can sense foot movements, including gauging pressure and takeoff power, so that the Wii will have two major haptic devices that its game authors can turn to.
Of course it is only a matter of time before there is a class action law suit made up of people that have hurt themselves jumping the 2 inches or so from the Wii Balance Board to the carpet ‘ but the bigger danger is that Nintendo overplays its hand. The Wii controller has had huge plaudits as an enabler of far more entertaining games, but it doesn’t mean that it can get two such devices right in quick succession. On the other hand if it manages it, it will take an even bigger lead.
But it is a good Christmas gadget and there are sure to be aerobic exercise games, yoga instruction manuals, football games, and skiing games that emerge once the balance board device is out there in volume.
Sony’s reaction by comparison is to simply keep dropping the price of the PlayStation 3 on the understanding that it will eventually hit the sweet spot and that all people really want is the successor to the PlayStation 2, but at the right price.
Of course the real winner is the combination of the balance board, the Wii hand controller and the Sony Eye Toy, so that the computer can feel you jump, follow the movements of an imaginary tennis racquet and watch you, all at the same time
The big issue we have here is why Sony and Microsoft haven’t at least followed this craze or better still, tried to get there first.
Nintendo rates the device as its most important for the Christmas period which will rope in yet more people that have never used a console before. In the New Year the $75 Wii Fit game will hit the US and Europe.