Miyamoto Chats With GamePro! (Page 4 of 4)

Jeremy Parish, 1UP: I was wondering; do you happen to know if people are buying Wii Fit instead of other optional fitness equipment, like fitness DVDs?

Miyamoto: I haven't heard of any examples. Fitness, in general and heath has been a very big topic in Japan recently, so I think, more than anything, we've benefited from that. Body mass index (BMI) recently has also become a hot term, so I think that's helped us out, but I don't have any examples of anyone suffering in sales.

Russell Frushtick, UGO: Is there a specific instance you would consider to be the biggest success for Wii Fit, like someone who's lost a huge amount of weight or now has perfect balance when before they were a mess? Is there anyone in the office you've seen improvement from?

Miyamoto: I personally was able to drop my BMI a full point, from somewhere in the 23 range to the 22s. I wouldn't necessarily say it was strictly because I was using Wii Fit, but I felt since I was making the game, I should stay in shape.

Of course, the development team was playing the game as well and saved their progress on a daily basis. They perhaps felt the pressure to avoid their graphs going in an upward direction. So the development team managed to do a very good job maintaining and keeping down their graphs.

The thing that's nice about Wii Fit is when you go into your own profile, you see your graphs for how your BMI and weight has changed. As you can see on the main Wii Fit menu it's not your actual weight, but your progress; it just shows how you've changed from your starting point. So what you can see on the screen doesn't represent any actual weight information, but you can see that I have managed do that [points at screen] since I started. The development team, during the development progress, found that to be quite interesting; to see what everyone else's progress was, even though they didn't know precisely what everyone's weight was.

Going back to the last question about whether or not we've heard of any fitness programs or DVDs that suffered in sales, I can say that I think scale manufacturers in Japan were very shocked to see Wii Fit's sales. I say there's ever been in the history of Japan, a three-month period where somebody sold two million scales. I have heard a rumor that the presidents of those companies were very unhappy with their development teams.

Fran Mirabella, IGN: Would you say the Wii Fit board is the most technically advanced peripheral Nintendo has made? The company has obviously made a lot of peripherals in its time. Is the company working on any other current peripherals?

Miyamoto: I think that game design is centered around improving the user interface, which is something important that we work towards in the future. Nintendo is a company that focuses very heavily on user interface, and we continue to experiment with new ideas. One of the concepts behind the Wii Hardware was that we wanted it to be a device that people would feel belongs in the living room but wouldn't be in the way or clutter up the living room. So, on the other hand, we don't want to create too many peripheral devices. But because we are always experimenting, at some point in the future, there's always a chance for some kind of new device. We're not actively trying to bring peripherals to the Wii.

I think as other game-makers see the success we've had with Wii Sports and Wii Fit, and Rock Band and Guitar Hero, that other companies have had, we'll see other game-makers work on the user-interface.

Dave Rudden, GamePro: Do you think there any other areas of self-improvement that gaming can help people with? Now that you've tackled brain training and fitness training, is there anywhere else you think people can be helped by games?

Miyamoto: I guess we don't look at it as much as training games and games that provide that type of benefit so much as types of games we think people would interested in. A good recent example in Japan was when we released a game that literally would translate big beautiful letters, a game where you drew a Kanji character with your handwriting. In Japan, Kanji characters are very complicated, with a very specific stroke order that they're supposed to be written in. It's a DS game that helps people improve their handwriting of Kanji characters, and when we shipped it, it sold out almost immediately, to the point that we're actually having problems supplying it, because it comes with a specialized brush stylus. So we're still trying to meet demand. It's really not so much improving people's lives so much as it is trying to provide experiences people will be interested in.

Miyamoto with GamePro's Dave Rudden

Miyamoto with GamePro's Dave Rudden

Jeff Cork, Game Informer: Is Nintendo aggressively working with third-party developers to ensure that when you're buying the Balance Board you get your money's worth, or was it mostly a case of Nintendo trying to make sure the perfectly with Wii Fit and if other developers want to get on board, it's a bonus?

Miyamoto: When we created the Balance Board, and devised the specifications for it, one of the first things we realized was that this interface has a tremendous amount of possibility for us to continue to create games for and take advantage of. With the Balance Board, it's like your body has become the joystick, and you're controlling the game. So in that sense, yes, we are going out to third parties as well. Just in terms of going back to the value of the Balance Board, I think if you compare the cost of what Wii Fit will cost when compared to a standard exercise program, gym membership, or exercise equipment, I think the consumer looking in that perspective will certainly feel like they've got a great value.

Of course, in Japan, Bandai-Namco has already developed a skiing game using the Balance Board, and there are a number of other titles currently in development.

Libe Goad, GameDaily: What's the likelihood that we'll see this being used with very popular Nintendo franchises like Mario, Smash Bros., or Pikmin?

Miyamoto: I think that partially depends on how well Wii Fit sells in North America and Europe. Looking at how many have sold in Japan, so far, I could definitely see the possibility of perhaps not just games that require the Balance Board to play, but games that are enhanced by it. We've been finding ways to take games we've developed in the past and find ways to provide Balance Board compatibility. We're finding some really fun things.

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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