EA Fit with upcoming Wii Balance Board fitness game

Wii Fit has already sold over 1.4 million times in JapanWith Nintendo’s Wii Fit selling millions worldwide even before its U.S. release, Electronic Arts new Freestyle brand is now developing their own cardio-vascular workout game for the Wii that will use the Wii Balance Board for fitness mini-games.

To quote EA Sports President Peter Moore: “We’re watching very closely what the Wii Fit board does. We think we have to have a role to play with that mum – the kids have gone to school, she’s got 45 minutes on her own, the Wii is there, it’s the first console she’s ever liked because she can do things herself. And we’re working on stuff, trying to work out how we can use EA Sports applications there. I need to have a point of difference. We also need to make sure we’re delivering something that’s truly exercise. I’ll call [Wii Fit] more eastern fitness, where it senses weight and balance, like Tai-Chi. It’s more about holistic fitness. I don’t think the board is going to take a pounding.

We need to look more at western fitness in which I can actually be moving and start to sweat a little bit, and that’s what we’re working on right now. It can’t feel like a workout The team has to figure out, how do I smile while I’m doing this? You play soccer for 90 minutes; if I say you’re going to run five miles you’re not gonna want to do that. But you run for five miles playing soccer and you’ve had a good time. The difference is you’re distracted. We need to distract people and not make this exercise feel like work, but like they’re having fun. So mini-games, things where you’re actually laughing out loud, that’s the stuff we’re working on. It’s something I’ve always been passionate about, and who better than us to go and play in that market?” — Via Gonintendo