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Miyamoto Speaks: Wii Fit, Design Challenges And More
Miyamoto Speaks: Wii Fit, Design Challenges And More
GameInformer - April 18, 2008
Submitted by apujanata (14935) at 9:39PM PST on April 19, 2008
Some interesting tidbits :
it is true that Americans typically are bigger than Japanese people, particularly when it comes to their feet. In that sense, we did early on, in terms of developing the Balance Board, have a rather large American named Reggie stand on the Balance Board and measure whether or not our early prototypes were big enough for his feet and made changes based on that. (Note : Reggie is CEO of NoA).
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17apujanata posted on Wii Fit (Wii) at 9:39PM PST on April 19, 2008. Article: Miyamoto Speaks: Wii Fit, Design Challenges And MoreSome interesting tidbits : it is true that Americans typically are bigger than Japanese people, particularly when it comes to their feet. In that sense, we did early on, in terms of developing the Balance Board, have a rather large American named Reggie stand on the Balance Board and measure whether or not our early prototypes were big enough for his feet and made changes based on that. (Note : Reggie is CEO of NoA).[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 14935 ]
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Other interesting tidbits :
- in Japan, you might notice on the Wii Fit box that the Balance Board is rated to 136 kilograms, or 300 pounds, whereas here in North America if you look at the Wii Fit box it is rated to 330 pounds, which is 150 kilograms, despite the fact that the boards are exactly the same in the two countries.
- One thing that we found in Japan is that people were coming to the store hoping to buy Wii Fit but didn’t necessarily understand that it’s part of an existing video-game system that they can purchase alongside it. So one thing that we found is that we don’t really know who’s going to come and buy it. That was one of the things that surprised me.
- We’ve been getting inquiries about Wii Fit, not just from fitness centers but from hospitals, elderly-care centers and other places that are really interested in trying to find ways to not only use Wii Fit but use the technology and the interfaces introduced in Wii Fit and apply those to other applications.
- in sports training there are devices that are very similar to what the Balance Board does that are used for coaching athletes on their golf swing or while they’re pitching, and what we’ve learned is that these devices are running around $20,000, even though their technical capability is pretty much on par with what the Balance Board can do.
- I haven’t heard about thing suffering in sales because of Wii Fit. However, scale manufacturers in Japan were very shocked to see the sales of Wii Fit, because I can’t say that in the history of Japan has there ever been a three-month period where anybody’s sold 2 million scales. I have heard rumors that the presidents of those companies were very unhappy with their development teams.
- with the Balance Board, your body becomes the joystick, and you’re controlling the game. So in that sense, we are going out to third parties as well, not to mention we’re having the discussions we’re having internally about how we can continue to use it.