Tim Eves, a healthy 25-year-old UK man, hung up the phone with his mother only to die abruptly several moments later while playing Wii Fit with his girlfriend. Your first thought may be to link the Wii Balance board (as many outlets are) to his death, but if you stopped there you would be doing your inner detective an epic disservice.

Examine the facts. Why must the gaming device always be the bringer of death? It very well could have been the conclusion of a nagging motherly phone call or a strip teasing girlfriend that caused the former scout leader to face dive towards the carpet.

How many times have you rushed to end a call with your mother because all she wanted to do was nag your ear off? “Come over and fix my VCR.” “My computer needs new anti virus software.” “The printer is broken.” Blah Blah Blah. My blood pressure is rising already just from talking about it.

And what about your sexy half naked girlfriend? Always looking to distract you during your gaming sessions. Walking around in her Victoria’s Secrets and stuff, smacking her butt and saying things like “I’m thirsty”. Women are the devil Bobby Boucher and don’t you ever forget it.

Either one of those are more likely to have me grasping my chest than an in-place jogging session on a Wii Balance board. If a medical determination is what you seek, paramedics pronounced the man dead upon arrival. No official cause has been determined, but the family is being told that the death was due to Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome (SADS).

Source: Telegraph.co.uk Via: The Dan Landis Examiner

In a stunning move, Nintendo’s Wii Fit sales have surpassed that of Halo 3 in the United Sates.

Selling in total 6 million units in the US, Wii Fit now holds bragging rights over Halo 3 which has 5.9 million units sold in the US. What also should be noted is that Halo 3 has been available since September 2007 while Wii Fit has only been on the market since May 2008, 8 months after Bungie’s mega hit!

Does this mean Wii Fit is a better entertainment device? Probably not, but it does symoblize America’s obession with losing weight. Congrats to Nintendo, as I guess sometimes a bit of exercise is better than fragging people online 24/7, especially on double xp weekends.

Source: MyWii

Plenty of studies have shown that playing Wii Sports or Wii Fit is good for you, to varying degrees. Some people don’t believe it, some people are willing to pay money to have someone teach them how to do it. What makes this study more authoritative? Well look, they used crazy breathing masks and machinery! That must make this one more scientific than the rest.

In any case, the results of a study conducted by a collection of Cleveland State University student researchers concluded that, on average, most people only burn 28 fewer calories playing Wii Boxing than they would hitting a real punching bag. 28 calories isn’t much. In fact, it’s completely negligible, and considering people tend to have more fun playing Wii Boxing than when they slam their fists into a rock-solid bag, well, Wii Boxing might actually be better than the real thing.

One problem, though: participants averaged a higher heart rate on the punch bag than the Wii. So if you want to get a comparable work out you “really have to get into it”, according to CSU Associate Professor Ken Sparks. That’s a real dealbreaker for me – I know plenty of people who break a serious sweat playing this game, but I don’t. Why? Because I play videogames and I know that I only need to jiggle the Wiimote a little to get my Mii to score a K.O.

Once again, my gamer conditioning gets in the way of my path to physical fitness. When someone invents a way to burn calories by inputting Street Fighter commands on an arcade stick, let me know.

Source: Cleveland.com Health News

It’s not just Marky Mark who considers the Wii to be a bit of a novelty. Xbox VP (and former CEO of Nintendo Europe) David Gosen has slammed Wii for its gimmicky approach when it comes to controllers – notably Wii Fit’s balance board as being little more than a set of “digital bathroom scales”.

Asked about Microsoft’s concerns when it came to creating new peripherals, he praised Nintendo’s success with Wii, but warned they were treading a fine line.

“I think sometimes there is a thin line between gimmick and great gameplay. We’ve seen some research that says 60 per cent of people who bought a Wii Fit play it once and don’t play it again. So we have to get the balance right, because what we are doing is bringing new consumers into the market for the first time in their lives sometimes – and we have to treat them with respect.”

Oh yes, he just made a balance pun. He goes on to make the usual promises about Microsoft’s own efforts – “it’s going to be a truly game changing experience” darhling! – rounding off by claiming anything less revolutionary will end up unloved and collecting dust under the stairs.

So wait, why is he warning Nintendo they need to make more of their peripherals? After all, the sooner those gamers stow their Wii away the sooner they’ll be hungering for something a bit more hardcore. Like a 360, right?

Source: Develop

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

The Wii Fit Girl video has been around for a while now and has brought in millions of viewers, thanks in no small part to MTV’s Total Request Live. Lauren Bernat, the Wii Fit Girl herself, and her marketing boyfriend, Giovanny Gutierrez, showed up on the show this week to discuss their now infamous video. Hit the jump to watch the clip and read Ripten’s thoughts.

Ripten’s thoughts can be summed up in one word: bullshit. Kotaku points out the fact that in an earlier interview, Gutierrez referred to the video as a “spec Viral video.” Even without that comment, the whole thing is way too suspicious to be taken seriously. The man is a marketing executive (online creative director no less) and his girlfriend works for the same company. Not to mention that all of Bernat’s comments in the TRL video seem incredibly scripted and poorly acted.

Some people seem to think that Nintendo is by all of this, but I disagree. It’s never been Nintendo’s style and I see no reason why they would start now. It’s not like they need to stir up hype to sell Wii Fit, anyway. It’s flying off shelves on its own.

If you’re one of the millions that are feeling the urge to get the game thanks to Lauren Bernat’s video, just check out the one we have for you below. Let it serve as a reminder that not “every guy” should buy his girlfriend a Wii Fit.

Source: Kotaku

You knew it had to happen. There’s already a lot of copycat videos out there featuring girls shaking their asses in various states of undress while playing Wii Fit, including one from Playboy that’s not quite safe for work.

I found these in particular to be funny. After all, turnabout is fair play. However, if looking at guys’ butts gives you hives, perhaps you should skip them.

Both mainstream and games press have reported today that UK women are breaking more than a sweat when it comes to Wii Fit. Trouble is, they’re all talking a load of cobblers.

Their reports are based on a recent study from women-only insurer Sheila’s Wheels, which apparently reveals that these female Wii Fittie Wannabes are hulking out on the balance board and have caused some £20 million of damage to their homes since launch, breaking vases, falling over cats and other such japery.

Thing is, not one of these sites, not even the one enjoying inflated traffic from N4G, has linked back to the original study – apparently the journalistic tradition of checking your sources has gone out of fashion.

So I dug up the original press release from the Sheila’s Wheels website. And when I said dug, I mean opened a press release from their media room. Wii Fit, £20.1 million of damage? You are having a laugh. Here’s the skinny:

” When it comes to exercising in the home, vases are the most commonly damaged item with just under 2.5 million women (8 per cent) admitting to smashing one. ‘The box’ is also in danger when it comes to indoor activities with 615,422 (2 per cent) women having damaged their TV set – many getting a little carried away on computer consoles, such as the Nintendo Wii, which requires handheld controls.”

This harks back to the Christmastime tradition of hurling your newly unwrapped Wii Remote into your TV/wall/friend’s face. Still has nothing to do with Wii Fit though. But wait, there’s more:

“The recent launch of the Wii Fit console saw a surge in the popularity of exercising at home, with a huge 86 per cent of the respondents already owning a Wii – or planning to buy one.”

So that’s it. Wii Fit equals exercise. Exercise equals damage. Therefore Wii Fit must equal damage. It makes no sense. These leaps and bounds in logic are the same which cause people to link gun crime and Grand Theft Auto.

The £20m damage figure doesn’t even appear in the main body of the press release. It is tacked on as an editor’s note, very much removed from that sole reference to Wii Fit.

“Headline – £20,155,080: Based on average cost of damage (£6.55) and UK female population estimates from CIA Government Data, 2008.”

But whatever I say, I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to do anything about the likely torrent of calls Ninty will get from the National Accident Helpline.

Source: Sheila’s Wheels media room

Buy your girlfriend Wii Fit immediately. This video has been around for a few weeks now, but for some reason I just don’t mind watching it again — and for the record, I could care less whether it was a marketing ploy or not.

In closing, let’s put things in perspective. While “Wii Fit Ass Girl” is nice, the Wii Fit will never reach its full sex inducing potential until Nintendo creates an interactive cowgirl stripper “whirl your lasso around” game. See example below.

So lets go Nintendo! No more kid games. The hard working men out there fully expect to see some new Wii Fit games that better utilize the many capabilities of the female body.

So the May NPD data is out and there are few surprises. The Nintendo Wii remains king of the consoles and Grand Theft Auto IV continues to dominate the software charts. Hit the jump for a more in depth look at the numbers.

Despite Wii Fit’s tremendous success with 1M copies sold, it falls slightly behind Xbox 360 GTAIV sales, which came in at 1.10M. The Playstation 3 version of GTA moved 577K copies.

Other Wii gems include Mario Kart, which sold 854K units, compared to last month’s 1.12M, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which sold 248K units, down from 326K.

Despite the Wii’s software success, the gap between Nintendo’s console and its competitors is smaller this month than last. The 360 and PS3 saw hardware sales increase by 39K and 32K, respectively, while Nintendo only say an increase of 8K.

Which doesn’t mean that the Wii isn’t outselling both consoles combined by 276K. Maybe smaller isn’t the right word. Let’s the gap is <i>less gargantuan.</i>

Rounding out the hardware list is the Nintendo DS with 505K units sold (last month saw 415K) and the PlayStation Portable with 211K (last month was 193K).

Source: The Sim Exchange

Nintendo’s Wii Fit was released this week, and the craze surrounding it is already becoming comparable to the actual Nintendo Wii launch.

UK-based retailer Woolworths claimed that Wii Fit is selling at the rate of 90 per minute. Woolworth’s games trading manager Gerry Berkley seemed optimistic about the product and the force it would have on the industry.

“This is a revolution in computer gaming. For a game not targeted at gamers to sell in numbers like this is unheard of and is genuinely changing the market.”

“One at a time, please.”

Hopefully Nintendo will be able to cope with the high levels of demand, compared to the supply problems which dogged the Wii launch for many months.

In times like these you can either exercise patience and wait for new stock to arrive, or get ready to sell your spare kidney for an Ebay auction.

Source: Webuser.co.uk

In a recent interview with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto admitted that Wii Fit isn’t designed to make you fit at all.

The project came about through Miyamoto’s own obsession with his health and weight and he admits to actually enjoying tracking his weight through the use of charts. He thinks that maintaining your health can be fun for the entire family.

So it was decided early on that Miyamoto and his team would focus on fitness, but just how they would go about it was still up in the air. Then one day, a staff member brought two scales into the office and was trying to stand on both at once while trying to keep them even. This led to the idea of using balance as a central theme.

It was at that point that Miyamoto made it his personal mission to see this game through. Scale manufacturers that they discussed the project with didn’t show much enthusiasm, so they decided it would best if they just made the accessory themselves. The testing began and they eventually settled on the idea of having four balance points: front, back, left, and right. By the end of the process, the balance board became more than a scale and grew into its own.

Finally, Miyamoto expressed what he felt was the game’s true purpose.

“I don’t think Wii Fit’s purpose is to make you fit; what it’s actually aiming to do is make you aware of your body.”

In keeping with the personal image theme, perhaps Nintendo can come out with a Wii Bulemia game, where you stick the Wii Remote down your throat and hop on the balance board. I think that would go over well with certain crowds.

Via GameDaily

2007 ended on a great note for Nintendo, with both the Wii and the DS being insanely successful. However, according to the first Japanese software chart of 2008, they’re just getting started.

For the week ending in January 6th, 25 of the 30 top selling games in Japan were for the Wii and the DS. Even more impressive, the two systems took up every top ten spot. The other five spots went to three Playstation 2 games and two PSP games.

Mario Party DS topped the list with just under 200,000 units sold, while Wii Fit came in second and Wii Sports surprisingly took third, followed by Final Fantasy IV for the DS and Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii.

The full list was as follows:

1. Mario Party DS (DS)
2. Wii Fit (Wii)
3. Wii Sports (Wii)
4. Final Fantasy IV (DS)
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
6. Wii Play (Wii)
7. Dragon Quest IV (DS)
8. Prof Layton and Pandora’s Box (DS)
9. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
10. Mario Party 8 (Wii)

I have never been more proud to be a Nintendo fanboy.

Via GamesIndustry.biz

They break the advice into sections – head, arms, legs, body – and break the sections up even more. For the head alone, they’ve covered the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and of course the brain, suggesting games such as Brain Age and Zack and Wiki: Quest For Barbaros’ Treasure to flex the ol’ mental muscles.

The list even suggests Freshly Picked: Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland as a way to exercise your, umm, “situation.”

It’s definitely an entertaining read and while most of the games on the list won’t prepare you for squat, they’re fun games nonetheless.

Via GoNintendo

It’s time to get up out of the couch and put the controller down – well not exactly. Rather than use the controller, connect the Wii Balance Board and take time to get your work out on.

Nintendo announced that Wii Fit will be released in Japan on Dec. 1. Also announced was the price tag of 8,800 yen – about $75 U.S. dollars.

Although they gave the release date, it’s uncertain when they will release the U.S. version. According to IGN.com, it is expected to be released some time in 2008.

The Balance Board was described by Reuters news as bathroom scales that can sense when a person moves and leans.

If you thought the Wii Sports gave your heart a jumping, expect Wii Fit to have it running, literally.

Nintendo showed previews of the Wii Fit, which consisted of a selection of workouts and exercises.