EA Sports Reveals New Fitness Game
Fitness game to utilize Wii Fit's balance board.
Wii Fit hasn't even arrived in the United States yet, but Peter Moore is already excited about the possibilities offered by it's signature balance board peripheral. Speaking at the three-day EA Sports showcase in Vancouver, Moore revealed a new fitness game that will be released under the newly-created Freestyle label. In doing so, he spoke of his admiration for Wii Fit, saying that the unnamed title will likewise utilize the balance board.
Like Nintendo's breakthrough hit, Moore said that the new title will put a strong emphasis on fun, saying, "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."
A former physical fitness instructor, Moore also expressed his desire for the game to take a more western approach. "I need to have a point of difference," he said. "We also need to make sure we're delivering something that's truly exercise." For Moore, that means moving away from what he termed eastern holistic fitness, like Yoga and meditation, and putting the focus on cardio-vascular workouts. While he did not provide specifics, he did suggest that the game will be heavily focused around minigames.
"We need to distract people and not make this exercise feel like work, but like they're having fun," he said. "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?"
Moore has repeatedly stated his desire to put a stronger emphasis on the Wii, saying Tuesday that EA needed to take lessons from Wii Sports in offering options for greatly simplified motion controls that will avoid intimidating newer gamers. The first of the games to be released under that philosophy will be the arcade style boxing title FaceBreaker, which will hit store shelves this fall.
By Kat Bailey
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