EA Sports is developing a fitness game designed around Nintendo’s balance board peripheral.
If it sounds a bit familiar, EA Sports President Peter Moore insisted his company’s product would differentiate itself from Nintendo’s own best-selling Wii Fit.
“We’re watching very closely what the Wii Fit board does,” he said. “We think we have to have a role to play with that mum – the kids have gone to school, she’s got 45 minutes on her own, the Wii is there, it’s the first console she’s ever liked because she can do things herself. And we’re working on stuff, trying to work out how we can use EA Sports applications there.”
A former physical education instructor himself, Moore described Nintendo’s software as “more eastern fitness, where it senses weight and balance, like Tai-Chi. It’s more about holistic fitness.” His idea, in contrast, is to get people to “start to sweat a little bit.”
But Moore said he understood that he has to make exercise seem fun.
“The difference is you’re distracted. We need to distract people and not make this exercise feel like work, but like they’re having fun. So mini-games, things where you’re actually laughing out loud, that’s the stuff we’re working on. It’s something I’ve always been passionate about, and who better than us to go and play in that market?”
The planned game will be released under the newly minted Freestyle label, which will see its first game produced this year.
Source: Eurogamer.net
Published: May 8, 2008 08:13 pm