EA plans its own fitness title for Wii

Get ready to sweat

9 May 2008 10:36 GMT / By Verity Burns

EA Sports president, Peter Moore, has revealed that his division is developing a fitness game for Wii that will use the balance board peripheral.

However, rather than a competitor for Wii Fit, Moore sees EA's offering as focusing on raw, "Western" style workouts. He wants to offer more in the way of cardio-vascular fitness, rather than the "Eastern holistic fitness" of Wii Fit.

Basically, yoga is out and sweating is in.

Speaking during a major 3-day EA Sports showcase in Vancouver, Moore spoke of his admiration for Nintendo's breakthrough hit and the opportunities it has created.

But perhaps it is Moore's background as a PE instructor that makes him want to go down the route of more strenuous fun.

"I need to have a point of difference", he explained. "We also need to make sure we're delivering something that's truly exercise. I'll call [Wii Fit] more eastern fitness, where it senses weight and balance, like Tai-Chi. It's more about holistic fitness. I don't think the board is going to take a pounding. We need to look more at western fitness in which I can actually be moving and start to sweat a little bit, and that's what we're working on right now."

However, Moore was keen to emphasise that the game needed to focus on the fun side of fitness to be successful.

"It can't feel like a workout", he added. "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."

"The difference is you're distracted. We need to distract people and not make this exercise feel like work, but like they're having fun. 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?"

The unannounced title will be released under EA Sports' newly-created Freestyle label, but no date was given. We'll keep you updated.

Full tags

Gaming, Nintendo Wii, Sports games, EA, Nintendo, PC games, Disney, Sony, Microsoft, PS2