RSSNintendo set to launch Wii Fit in US
By Ed Oswald | Published May 19, 2008, 2:44 PM
The highly anticipated game will launch first at its company store in New York City on Monday, and will roll out across its entire retail channel by Wednesday.
Wii Fit has already been a huge hit in Japan, where it launched over the last holiday season, selling 1.4 million units. Nintendo says it expects to sell three million copies here in the US.
Like the Wii console, Wii Fit will be hard to find. Many retailers are already sold out of their initial stocks, and some have completely sold out of their allocations through pre-orders, according to news reports.
Retailers are also heavily promoting the launch -- a full page of Best Buy's weekly circular was devoted to the product, and others like Circuit City are selling the device alongside promotions for related items and accessories.
The game, which comes with the Wii Balance Board, retails for $89.99 in the US. It is likely to become the next big hit of the year for Nintendo, following Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, and Mario Kart Wii. If it is as successful as retailers are expecting, it will become the first hit game designed around health and fitness.
The balance board is something of a variable pressure switch, able to detect movements such as leaning in different directions and crouching due to the shift it detects in weight dispersal. It connects wirelessly to the console.
Nintendo says it plans to tour the US and Canada over the next two months to promote the product, allowing consumers to get a first hand look at the game.
How will they market this again?
Wii Fit Features:
*Practice standing on one leg 1.5" higher then your floor level.
*Practice leaning in all directions 1.5" higher then your floor level.
*Do pushups while 1.5" higher then your floor.
Do all these and more! The 1.5" higher vantage point allows you to see the room around you. The Wii Fit will maker exersize fun! (To feel the difference the Wii will make to your exersize routine try using a phone book! You'll be back to purchase a Wii Fit in no time!
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|Absolute fad-ware.
We can find em right next to the Chia-pets a couple years from now.
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|Ahhh, you have to love the newest "me too" craze. The first one on the block with a Wii Fit will be the envy of the whole neighborhood. But what usually ends up happening is Hollywood trumps them all in the end with his extreme wastefulness.
At least that's the way it works around here. People will line up to pay four times retail for one of these things on eBay.
I won't be getting one mainly because I choose to be a flabby POS. The only exercise I get is playing Rock Band and I only play bass guitar.
My next unnecessary and foolish purchase will be the stage kit for Rock Band with the smoke and purple lights for $99.00. I have to be a complete spectacle at our family parties.
I just bought SceneIt? and wouldn't you know it, the bulb in my f**got Sumsung DLP exploded before I could even boot the game.
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|It appears that Nintedo is doing a Wii thing with this also with low amounts of inventory. Look on Amazon and see the Wii Fit selling for $350.00. I am willing to bet that Nintendo will make more so why bother.
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|It still baffles me as to why people want one of these, but then each to their own, I suppose.
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|I'm just worried it will drive up health care costs with all those obese Mid-Westerners carted off to the hospital after getting a stroke...
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|i agree with that.
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|I haven't been able to understand this either.
Its like they think it actually counts for exercise.
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|*ahem* Midwesterners indeed! There is plenty of heft in the coastal states, too!
Doubt I'll rush out and buy it but there is a part of me that wants to play with it... could be fun. I'm worried about people falling off leaning too far forward and crashing into their big screen TVs. Nintendo will have to offer an ankle strap or something.
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|So they've been fine in Japan, but us Americans are too stupid to use them as they are?
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|Haha. There was a study on that recently (it may have been a UK thing, I'm not sure) that pointed out that using a Wii doesn't count as exercise.
That study gets the No-s***-Sherlock award of 2008.
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|"So they've been fine in Japan, but us Americans are too stupid to use them as they are?"
We don't know. We can't understand what you are saying...
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|lol it certainly does.
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|People (esp. in Japan) believes that this is really popular because gyms in Japan closes really really early, and often you have to work really late hours, including Saturdays and Sundays.
So, something to do at home = great.
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|Probably a "study" commissioned by some fitness club. I don't know - go 5 rounds in Wii boxing and say the same thing (in between breaths).
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|I suggest getting one, and using it before making statements like that.
If you sit on the couch and just flick it, yeah probably not.
That's not the point of the wii though.
When we have people over, we all act like we are really playing whatever game we are "playing".
One guy fell over my couch running after the ball (yeah, we know that you don't need to chase the ball, but where's the fun in that?)
That's what makes the Wii different. :-D
I was thinking about getting one for the kids too. heh
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|We enjoy it here. Even the simple games. My girlfriend almost broke her sisters nose bowling hitting it with her elbow. LOL
I'm looking forward to trying the Wii Fit. My understanding also, is that the balance board will be incorporated into other games that need balance, such as some sort of surfing or skateboarding. Tony Hawk downhill racing anyone?
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