(SAN DIEGO, CA) Last week while working with my client at Nintendo’s U.S. headquarters (Seattle) I had the pleasure to test and play with the new Wii Fit (hits stores in the U.S. and Canada on May 21). It is a remarkable system that will spark a revolution in gaming (if that revolution has not already been sparked by the main Wii system). The centerpiece of the game is a balance board you stand on that tracks your weight and your movements (shifts in balance) as you play and exercise.

 

 

I was, to say the least, highly impressed. The balance board measures your weight, and along with your height that you manually input, tracks your BMI and helps produce exercise targets and a program for reducing your weight and BMI. Among the games I was exposed to was one on yoga that tracks your balance as you strike yoga poses on the board, and a soccer game where you have to shift your weight on the board to ‘head’ incoming soccer balls and avoid errant soccer boots (displayed on the television screen with the appearance of flying directly at you). The Wii-Fit launches with 40 games including others for skiing and snowboarding.

 

In April, 714,000 Wii stations were sold – almost double the sales of the Xbox and Playstation combined. The Wii Fit has already been sold-out online.

 

The Wii and Wii-Fit are changing gaming: no longer is gaming a sedentary pastime, but an active promoter of physical activity and fitness. I worked-up a minor sweat heading those soccer balls and got to thinking about the enterprise implications of using Wii as a corporate tool:

 

-         Training – using the Wii to remotely train employees for different tasks. For example, training manufacturing employees via simulated line functions.

-         Health & Wellness – incorporating the Wii Fit into health & wellness activities. For example, very few offices have a corporate gym, and cannot afford one. Instead of a gym, use the Wii Fit.

-         Product demos – using the Wii to create virtual product demos or games that mimic the product functionality. For example, downloading a slimmed-down game that demonstrates and mimics a super soaker water gun toy.

 

I have some other ideas, and there probably tons of possibilities and implications, but you get the drift. The Wii and Wii Fit are extraordinarily powerful systems and are destined to become as ubiquitous as the iPod.

 

READ MORE:

Wii Fit Debuts in US to Help Fight Flab

'Wii Fit' will definitely get you moving

 

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PS - Many more articles and blogs to come this week from the Enterprise3 conference here in San Diego... next up: Pros and Cons of Sharepoint.

 

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