Days after confirming the arrival of the Wii Vitality Sensor next year, Nintendo has announced plans to bundle software with the uncanny peripheral to showcase its utility.
“The Wii Vitality Sensor is planned for 2010 and will come with software that shows off its unique abilities,” said Amber McCollum, director of entertainment and trend marketing for Nintendo of America. “We believe the Wii Vitality Sensor will enable Nintendo to take another important step in expanding the appeal of video games,” she added, when speaking with Infendo.
Nintendo unveiled the Wii Vitality Sensor in June to a perplexed group of media at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angles. The device attaches to the Wii Remote and looks more like medical equipment than game accessory. Although expected, the strategy to bundled software with the peripheral’like Nintendo has done with other Wii products such as the Balance Board and Crossbow’had not been previously announced.
As to the practicality of the sensor, McCollum says the device will meter “a user’s pulse and other signals transmitted by the body.” More specifically, the biofeedback apparatus “has great potential for various applications like measuring how horrified a player is in a horror title,” Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said earlier this week. “What we are trying to propose first (however) is a video game with a theme of relaxation, which is completely opposite from traditional ones.”
The news comes as Nintendo tries to tempt “maybe” gamers, which the company describes as prospective players who aren’t particularly interested in either traditional or casual games, which are designed to appeal to skilled and novice players. Unfortunately for those trying to wrap their heads around what exactly that may mean, specific software examples that support the sensor have yet to be revealed.