Wii Fit to get Body Check Channel in Japan
Panasonic, Hitachi and NEC all teaming with Nintendo to gather player data
Nintendo is making a Wii Fit Body Check Channel that will correlate player data (and DS pedometer data) and offer ongoing health and fitness advice, while also providing medical professionals with valuable research data.
The first companies on board are Japanese giants NEC, Panasonic and Hitachi, according to Andriasang, and each will use the data in different ways.
NEC will use the Wii Fit Body Check Channel to get employees and their families fit and healthy; Panasonic will cater to insurance companies and health organisations; and Hitachi has a secret internal project in testing.
NEC and Panasonic hope to go live from April, while Hitachi will roll out sometime next month if everything goes well.
Nintendo told our sister site Eurogamer.net there were "no current plans" to offer the Wii Fit Body Check Channel across Europe.
The news comes as Wii Fit enjoys a second week atop the UK All-Formats chart, despite having launched back in April 2008.