Those who discounted Nintendo's odd pulse-reading doohickey as a stillborn experiment swept under the carpet in favour of more potent technological advancements might want to re-count those unhatched chickens. As Nintendo of America's Cammie Dunaway told GameSetWatch:
We're continuing to work on the Vitality Sensor. As we thought about what we wanted to bring to E3, we realized we had a really packed agenda. We also thought about the atmosphere at E3 which is noisy and adrenaline-filled, and loud and stressful, and it just didn't seem like the best environment to introduce a product that's really about relaxing, so we decided we'd think about other venues that would be more appropriate.
This jibes with information that Shigeru Miyamoto told IGN that basically states the same points, though it's good to hear that we'll be seeing a larger showing at future shows.
It seems that despite naysayers, this peculiar peripheral still slouches toward store shelves to be born. Until then, we can only speculate about whether this will be the next analogue stick or simply another 64DD. You can also read the interview in full for Dunaway's thoughts on everything from Move to Kinect to Nintendo's own intellectual properties and more.
[source gamesetwatch.com, via uk.wii.ign.com]
Comments 24
Interesting...
It's Nintendo, it'll be a hit, all we need to do is work on our zen meditation to affect our vitility with our mind to psycho-hack the games, lol.
I can't think of much that this would be useful for...and outside of the obvious things like an exercise tool, other ENTERTAINMENT ideas like using it to gauge how "scary" a game should be (Think of L4D's Director with a new input device) might actually be hindered because you'd be wearing such a strange device on your hand.
Nice simile at the beginning there.
Your puls will actually be measured by a thin needle inside the device! Perfect for relaxing!
I thought Cammie left Nintendo? Or is that just me being a dingbat...
It can measure your pulse, and your O2 stat. Pulse - heaps of variation in the population and O2 stat ... if it's low you should be in the hospital, no playing nintendo.
I'm still convinced it was merely an experimental prototype thrown into E3 2009 so they had some new hardware to show:
2006: Wii
2007: Balance Board
2008: Motion Plus
2009: ??? ...Heart Rate Monitor!
2010: GAMES! ...and no heart rate monitor. Good.
So why didn't they follow that logic LAST year?
Their agenda wasn't nearly as packed last year.
It was so full this year that they didn't even get to give time to all of their first-party titles, which should tell you something.
I just wanna know what games could you play with it?
Be good for Horror games where to live you have to have your heartbeat at a certain level, if you go over, every monster attacks you.
Other than that, this seems pointless.
@12.... Its for your fitness games!
Do you really think something like this could really be incorporated into an actual game?
It seems like you guys really had fun writing this article.
you could use it in a stealth game, the more calm you are the more invisible you are, something like mirror's edge, where you could stay focused on what you're grabbing at and get a better grip, or any of the trauma center games to help keep a steady hand. There are tons of ways to use it, just got to think about it.
I still think they should just abandon it completely.
where's V when you need him?
It's okay, i think i can wait.
@Adam We did! Do you like the rhyming subhead?
hmmm could be used for another Eternal Darkness game
@15..... sure, have fun with that one
Eh...I think it's gonna be another Balance Board: used in very few games, and only used well in a couple.
Reminds me that it's been over a hundred days since I last "played" Wii Fit...
@zkaplan You know, the one criticism I had of Nintendo Life's E3 coverage up to now was the striking absence of any references to the poetry of W. B. Yeats.
My favourite head/subhead ever.
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