Weed Fit: Unofficial Wii Balance Board Covers Garner Response From Nintendo
The Wii Balance Board covers shown above are the work of Amr Racing, and have been in the spotlight as of late, due to their racey nature — which clashes with the overall “family” brand of Nintendo — the company their product is made to skin.
Gameindustry.biz obtained a comment from Nintendo regarding the skins, and the response they recieved was one most of us could have predicted:
“These are not officially licensed products, we always recommend the use of official first or third party Nintendo products to ensure 100 per cent compatibility and reliability with our hardware … We always closely monitor new products entering the market to ensure that they do not infringe on any of our IP.”
Apple has been dealing with third party content on for their iPod (and most recently their iPhone) for some time now. Cell phones in general have been the target of third party skins for as long as I can remember.
Generally speaking, most manufactures seem to take the hands-off, “we can only recommend products stamped with our official approval” approach regarding their existence. However, those products still remain on the market, and many of them do very well. Why is that?
Having the means to reach consumers without directly tarnishing their brand is a benefit to a large corporation. For example, corporations often ask customers to comment on their products, because they know that they will likely say things they never could as a company. Hearing an individual who is not affiliated with a company say “wow this is the greatest thing ever made”, may influence you as a consumer, and at the same time does not legally put the manufacturer of the product at risk by directly over-promising.
The reality is that third party content (be it a consumer testimonial or a visual product enhancement) helps to heighten awareness, and as demonstrated by the skins above, presents an opportunity for the company to connect with an audience in a way they never could/would attempt to do directly.
The major difference between the Balance Board skins and those applied to cell phones and laptops for example, is that you actually place the full weight of your body on the Wii Balance Board. Therefore, the moment someone slips off one of these things, and attempts to file a suit against Nintendo (it will happen), Amr Racing better pray to whatever Gods they worship that their skin is not involved.
Source: gamesindustry.biz
