Vitality Sensor will be Nintendo's next balance board - Fils Aime
Company will continue innovating to attract new users and is one step ahead of rivals, says US boss
Nintendo's North American president and chief operating officer Reggie Fils-Aime has said people's reactions to the Wii Vitality Sensor are as doubtful as when the company first unveiled DS, the Wii controller and the Balance Board, but that once they play the games, they'll "get it".
"If I told you that you would be standing on an oversized bathroom scale, and having fun doing it, you probably would have said, 'Reggie, I don't get it.' And yet here we are with the balance board arguably as the third largest development platform across the globe," Fils-Aime told Fast Company.
"All I can tell you is, with the game developers that we have, we will bring forth an experience that you will say, 'Wow, I get it'. Until you have that software, it's tough to understand."
On the unveiling by Sony and Microsoft of motion controlling devices at E3, he said that both platform holders have now seen the opportunity that Nintendo saw when they launched Wii. However, he claimed Nintendo will be one step ahead by the time both devices have entered the marketplace.
"Our next advance in precision control [the Wii Motion Plus peripheral], launches on Monday," Fils-Aime said. "I'm not sure when their products will come to the market, but I can tell you by the time that happens, we will have continued to move on, to drive more and more immersion on the part of the consumer."
Nintendo will continue to serve its loyal users, as well as "continue to fill the bucket" with new gamers, according to Fils-Aime, which is why the company is unveiling games such as Metroid Prime alongside ones like Style Savvy. The former is "gamer-centric" while the latter is for the audience Fils-Aime refers to as "new core".
"These are girls who have bought a DS or DSi, and maybe have played something like Nintendogs or maybe have played new Super Mario Brothers for DS. This is another step in the journey for them, and then also to showcase Wii Fit Plus, and then to showcase the Vitality Sensor.
"There are a 150 million consumers in the markets that we do business, that say they'd be interested in videogames if they had the right content, but today don't play," Fils-Aime concluded. "Those are the consumers that we believe something like the Vitality Sensor with the right software could compel to get in the game."