Miyamoto Chats With GamePro! (Page 3 of 4)

Jeff Cork, Game Informer: You mentioned something about a fitness program that tracks diets; is that something that's still being worked on, or if not, would that be something you'd be interested in revisiting?

Miyamoto: Yes, we were working on a product like that. The challenge with something like that is when you try to design for a worldwide audience a game that lets you input the food that you've eaten, for everyone in the world, that's quite challenging. So, we're still experimenting with some of those ideas. Actually, we also, in the development of Wii Fit, have thought quite a bit about creating some form of DS connectivity. We have designed the game in a way that by updating the Wii Fit Channel we could potentially look at future upgrades that could allow us to incorporate that type of connection. So, potentially we could look at upgrading the Wii Fit Chanel to add more functionality to take advantage of all the Wii Fit data you've been saving over time. You could have a third party developer create a fitness game and the Wii Fit Channel would be able to read the fitness data from their game and incorporate that into the Wii Fit data. So we're thinking of other potential ideas.

Jeff Bakalar, CNET: You've talked about Wii Fit's success in Japan and how well it's doing there, specifically who in the family is initiating the purchase. How do you think that will translate to the US?

Miyamoto: My assumption would be that it would be somewhat similar. America has more households where the family lives apart, so that might play a role, but I think there will be many cases where the entire family decides to purchase. My hope is that families will realize that buying Wii Fit is much cheaper than a family trip to Disneyland.

One thing we've found in Japan is that people will come to the store to buy Wii Fit and won't necessarily understand that it's part of an existing videogame system that you purchase alongside it. So you never know who's buying this.

N'Gai Croal, Newsweek: You talked about the difference in localization in the US version between pounds and kilograms. I'm Canadian, and in Canada, they use the metric system, so I'm wondering if the North American version allows the user to switch between pounds and kilograms. And just as you mentioned how the sumo wrestlers used two scales and it inspired the evolution of Wii Fit, have you guys done any experimentation in the labs using two Balance Boards? Is there anything to be gained, or anything interesting you can extract from the data using two Balance Boards?

Miyamoto: I can answer your first question--the North American version does have French and Spanish in it. When you change to French or Spanish, it changes over to metric for those formats. But I don't believe there's a switch for just metric.

As for your second question, my first answer to that is that I doubt there will be households that own two Balance Boards. I think could potentially look at doing competitive games where each player is using one balance board, but my guess is that ultimately there won't be many households that have two.

Of course, I've mentioned that Wii Fit is already doing very well in Japan with 2 million units, which means the Balance Board has an installed base of almost 2 million units, so that has led to some very active attempts by third-party developers to find ways to take advantage of the installed base and create software that's compatible with the Wii Balance Board. The other thing I find very interesting is that we're still learning a lot about the balance board ourselves because it's so new. We've found there's different ways to use it depending on how much pressure you're putting on the Balance Board with your foot; that maybe stepping on the Balance Board can be used like a volume control, or if you put one foot on the board on the right, you get gas, and one foot on the right to brake. Even in something as simple as a music game, maybe tapping on the balance board could be used in that. So I think there's still a lot of potential and a lot left for us to discover about the types of applications that the Balance Board can be used for. Ultimately, our initial goal is to try to build that installed base for the Balance Board.

Fran Mirabella, IGN: I really think Wii Fit needs to be in gyms across America and maybe the world-- are you guys working with clients to install it?

Miyamoto: We have been getting a lot of inquires about Wii Fit; not just from fitness centers, but from hospitals and elderly care centers and other places that are really interested in trying to find ways not only use Wii Fit, but to use the technology and user interface in Wii Fit and apply them to other applications, which, of course, is very interesting.

Another thing we've found is that in sports training, there are devices that are very similar to what the Balance Board does, that are used often for coaching athletes on their golf swing or pitching arm for pitching and we're heard these devices typically are running around $20,000, even though their technical capability is pretty much on par with the Balance Board, and our price is much cheaper. Our expectation is that we'll get more inquiries from other unexpected areas where they might have a need for this technology. We have heard that in Japan there are some fitness centers that already have it.

Jeff Bakalar, CNET: You mentioned the possibility of updating the Wii Fit Channel, so I assume the game has some online functionality. Are you considering other online components?

Miyamoto: There's nothing I can talk about today, but I can tell you we're looking into a variety of possibilites.

Gorging on sushi is not recommended before playing.

Gorging on sushi is not recommended before playing.

Dave Rudden, GamePro: I was wondering how much of a factor the end price of the Balance Board and the game was in the development of the game. Was there anything that couldn't be put in because it would make it too expensive?

Miyamoto: Actually, the decisions we made about the board ultimately did make it pretty expensive. Originally we had talked about having the Balance Board connect to the Wii Remote, and the idea was that if the Balance Board was plugged into the Wii Remote, then the board wouldn't need any wireless communication technology, and we could avoid that cost. Ultimately, we decided that having to plug the Balance Board into a Wii Remote every day to weigh yourself would be too much trouble. Most of the things we wanted to include may have raised the price of the Balance Board.

Comments [31]

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sammyborai

3rd i cant imagine anyone thinking this game is fun and not a dumb workout

TribeMindMD

3rd i cant imagine anyone thinking this game is fun and not a dumb workout
I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it in North America and Europe; they just aren't the types to come and post at GamePro. ;)

VoiceOfReason

Also, when you're standing on the Balance Board, some of the activities require you to squat or jump, so the Balance Board can handle physical pressure of up to 600 pounds. The weight it can accurately detect is 300.
At least it isnt as flimsy as I thought it was going to be

Sire

VoiceOfReason Posted at: 04/18/08 at 3:39 PM PST Also, when you're standing on the Balance Board, some of the activities require you to squat or jump, so the Balance Board can handle physical pressure of up to 600 pounds. The weight it can accurately detect is 300. At least it isnt as flimsy as I thought it was going to be
Okay, that's cool. I'm like 6'4 and 250lbs. . . the board looks like it will crush under my wieght, . . I guess not. That's cool.. . I think I'll use it in private, someone my size will look like a complete fruitcake balancing like he is doing in that pic. I'm not saying I'm not gonna do it, but I think I'll keep this one to myself, it'll still be fun I guess.

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