As president of Sports Authority, Campisi runs the largest sports goods retailer in the country. His wife, Beci Campisi, runs a garage gym based on the grueling fitness methodology of CrossFit which uses medicine balls, weights and nonstop exercise to mold "the quintessential athlete."

But when he first heard of Nintendo's part-game, part-exercise Wii Fit and Balance Board, he knew he had to get one. More importantly, he knew that he had to start selling it in his chain of stores, among the dumbbells, the rowing machines, the treadmills and the basketballs.

"When Nintendo first came out with Wii Fit I knew we could sell that product in our stores," Campisi told Kotaku. "I paid some guy on eBay $180 for a Wii Fit because you couldn't buy it in stores."

That was in 2008, last week, with the blessing of Nintendo, Campisi launched his campaign to sell Wii Fit and the Wii as exercise equipment in Sports Authority stores nationwide.

Sports Authority kicked off the movement to blend gaming and sports good with an event at their Torrance, Calif. store. Fitness guru Jillian Michaels was on hand to lead 100 people through exercise routines on balance board with the help of the Wii in what was believe to be the largest demonstration of Wii Fit in the world.

"Although individual retailers might do their own independent promotions from time to time, this is the first time Nintendo has officially partnered with a major sports retailer," said Marc Franklin, Nintendo of America's director of public relations. "Wii Fit has already sold more than 8 million units in the United States, making it one of the best-selling games of this generation, surpassing even some of the industry's most well-known franchises. Our partnership with The Sports Authority expands on the exergaming trend of Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus. Now we're reaching out to fitness fans in new ways, showing them that video games can be a part of their everyday fitness routines."

Instead of just dropping Wii consoles and games into their store, Campisi knew that his stores had to treat the game and its equipment the same as any other piece of exercise equipment.

So he had the stores carrying the equipment set up special Wii Fit areas and train some of their employees to explain and demonstrate the gaming equipment.

"They typically train people on weights and treadmills and now they're showing people how to use the Wii Fit," he said.

Mike Gabriela, manager of the Sports Authority in Littleton, Colorado, said news that the retailer would be carrying the video games was a "welcome surprise."

The equipment for the Wii Experience landed in their store on a Friday and they had it up and running that Saturday morning.

Gabriela says they trained employees using a Nintendo-provided video and tried out Wii Fit themselves.

"It's absolutely exercise," he said. "You do a couple of those programs and it is very difficult."

The customers who so far seem most intrigued by the console and its fitness games seem to be women who do Yoga and aerobics, he said.

"We sold our first (Wii) within 20 minutes of being open," Gabriela said.

While Sports Authority and Campisi seem to be putting a lot of support behind the Wii Fit, it doesn't mean that they believe it will replace more traditional forms of exercise.

"I don't believe that," Campisi said. "My wife would kill me if I believe that. I don't think this is a shift away from traditional exercise, it's just another way to get fit.

"There are a lot of people who don't want to get off their couch, but this is fun. Everyone is moving at 100 miles an hour, maybe this can get them to slow down."

The Wii Fit and the Wii's driving concept also seem to connect with Sports Authority on another level. Where Nintendo is using the Wii to expand its audience to more casual gamers, Sports Authority has long used backyard and youth sports to connect with children at a younger age.

The two coming together to expand each of its audiences seems like a good idea.

Nintendo's Franklin wasn't willing to yet say how important the Sports Authority deal would be in helping to expand Nintendo's reach.

"That remains to be seen," he said. "But we're always looking for ways to get video games into the hands – or under the feet – of people who have never played them before. Nintendo has the most diverse group of fans of any video game company, and it's important for us to reach out to where those fans are.

"We're always looking to bring the world of video games to new audiences. I'm sure there are plenty of people who visit The Sports Authority who don't have an interest in video games. Seeing Wii and Wii Fit Plus in the same context as some of their favorite fitness products will undoubtedly pique some people's interest and make them consider video games in a whole new light."

And for Sports Authority there's also a very practical reason to get into the Wii Fit business. Not everyone has the room for the larger exercise equipment the retailer sells.

"There are lots of people who can't afford a treadmill and we have stores in cities like New York where people can't fit that equipment in their lofts and apartments," Campisi said.

Though, it is still just one of many things the retailer carries, Campisi reminds.

"Fitness equipment and sports equipment is what we do," he said. "In our fitness department we carry a lot of equipment. There are many, many ways to get fit and exercise, this is just one additional opportunity. And for sporting goods its a huge opportunity, it's fun."

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

While the national sports retailer won't be officially announcing the Wii push at their stores until Thursday, some of the chain's locations started getting their Wii on last weekend.

The Colorado store pictured here received their equipment on Friday, setting up the training area and merchandise that night for a launch Saturday.

Store manager Mike Gabriela told Kotaku today that they trained a number of their employees to explain how the Wii and Wii Fit work, something they've also to educated customers about other sports equipment from skis to treadmills.

Gabriela says that the weekend drew crowds around the console set-up and that the store, which sells the console and an eclectic mix of games, saw brisk sales for everything from accessories to copies of Cabela's Big Game Hunter.

Sports Authority president David Campisi says that the Colorado company, which operated about 450 stores, has been working on the deal for about half a year, but that he was interested in selling the fitness-themed games since Wii Fit first hit stores in 2008.

"This is about getting the nation fit," Campisi told Kotaku. "This could be really, really game changing."

The chain started a soft roll-out of the Wii Fit Experience earlier this month with 102 stores selling the Wii, Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, accessories and other sports and fitness-themed games, Campisi said. The experience is set up along side the chain's more traditional exercise equipment like weights and treadmills.

"On Saturday I had people from 30 stores sending me pictures of kids on the Wii Fit board all day," he said.

The official announcement of Sports Authority's deal with Nintendo to sell their console and games will come this Thursday with the help of fitness expert Jillian Michaels, star of The Biggest Loser and her own Wii game Wii Fitness Ultimatum.

Campisi says that Thursday's event at their Torrance, California store will include more than 100 Wii boards and an attempt to host the world's largest Wii Fit Plus workout.

"In our fitness departments we carry a lot of equipment," Campisi said. "There are many, many ways to get fit and exercise, this is just one additional opportunity."

The Nintendo-funded study, led by the National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Tokyo, measured the metabolic equivalent values, or METs, generated by participating in Wii Fit and Wii Sports activities. METs are a standard way of measuring energy expenditure, with moderate intensity exercise defined as any activity with METs of 3.0 or above.

By far the most effective exercise in the study was Wii Fit's single-arm stand, which at 5.6 EMTs was just under the AHA's definition of vigorous activity, which kicks in at 6.0.

The loser? Wii Sports Golf didn't make the cut, falling in at 2.0 METs, which isn't really surprising when you consider that most of your exercise in golf comes from walking and drinking.

Here are the results as they stand:

Wii Fit Single-Arm Stand: 5.6 METs
Wii Sports Boxing: 4.5 METs
Wii Sports Tennis: 3.0 METs
Wii Sports Baseball: 3.0 METs
Wii Sports Golf: 2.0 METs

So aside from single-arm standing, the study proves that hitting imaginary people is a healthy way to spend your day. Good to know!

Nintendo Wii may provide actual exercise: study [Reuters]

The group has released a report on the super-popular home fitness program, drawing on research performed by the University of Wisconsin. And this report has found that even Wii Fit's most physically taxing workouts can't hold a candle to actual exercise.

Wii Fit's boxing, for example, burns only 1/3 the calories of actual boxing, while the other four most intensive modes - Free Island Run, Super Hula Hoop, Advanced Step, and Free Step - only burned between 100 and 160 calories every 30 minutes of exercise. Considering a cheeseburger has around 300 calories, you'll be on Wii Fit all day if you want to really burn some fat.

Perhaps most damning/hilarious, however, is the report's finding that while Wii Fit burns more calories than a regular game - where you're doing nothing - it's not as good for you as a session on Nintendo's own Wii Sports.

Ah, the power of marketing.

American Council on Exercise Charts 'Underwhelming' Wii Fit Health Benefits [Gamasutra]

At a Nintendo meeting today, Kotaku has learned that it was announced that, yes, Shigeru Miyamoto has a cat. Nintendo typically keeps Miyamoto's hobbies secret because they sometimes end up as the inspiration for new games.

Currently, Miyamoto is working on the new Zelda Wii title, which will sport swordplay with the MotionPlus feature. He is also working on a "DS game to play at home" and is interested in how the DS can be used in "public spaces".

Nintendo mentioned that the company was not against HD, and Miyamoto pointed out that a title like Wii Fit would not benefit greatly from HD, but the Nintendo creator added that a game like, say, Pikmin would.

"I'd like to get involved in video games, since I really love Wii Fit," the diva recently said. "I think it would be a great idea to incorporate choreography, because, for me, my workout is way more fun when it involves dancing, as opposed to running on a boring treadmill."

So what kind of game would Beyonce like to make? "So I would love to do some kind of fitness game but incorporate dance and performance into it. I think a lot of women would enjoy that."

Earlier this year, Beyonce became a spokesperson for the Nintendo DS. If you are looking for someone to blame for any future Beyonce games, blame Nintendo?

Beyonce eyeing fitness video game [Spicezee via GameCulture]

The listing says the weights don't interfere with the IR capability so, hell, why not hook it up to Dead Space: Extraction or Madworld for a real workout?

Wii Weights (2lb Dumbbells) [Everlast, thanks fusioncam]

San Diego Padres pitcher Heath Bell bought Wii Fit for his 11-year-old daughter, originally, but hijacked the game for himself as part of his off-season training routine. Bell tells the Journal that the game makes him a better ballplayer with its balance-focused exercises.

I'm just happy to have an alternative to senior citizens and the Wii Fit girl as motivation to play the game. Also, Bell's story inspires me to keep an eye out for a "pro training" mode in Wii Fit Plus.

Go watch Bell shake his butt (sorta):

A Pitcher's New Core Routine: A Videogame and a 'Hula Hoop' [Wall Street Journal]

Reader Martin sent us the link, and says the gym has been wallpapering local TV with ads. Good for them. Now, who's to say if Nintendo feels like going after a fitness club. But yeah, the name does sound a smidge like the brand on the No. 5 selling game of all time - and one strongly associated with exercise at that.

But my name's Paul, and this is between y'all.

We-Fit Tucson - Personal Training and Post-Rehab fitness [thanks Martin]

I just ... lose it when the ... oh I can't spoil that. Seventeen seconds - that's what I'm talking about.

Robot Chicken Humping Robot Wii Fit [YouTube, thanks SinfulKnight!]

During the period, Wii Fit sold 3.6 million units globally (130,000 units in Japan and 3.47 million overseas), bringing lifetime sales for the game to 21.82 million copies.

Mario Kart Wii sold 2 million copies globally (90,000 copies in Japan and 1.91 million overseas). The lifetime sales total for Mario Kart Wii is 17.39 million copies.

Wii Sports sold 1.91 million copies worldwide, selling 60,000 copies in Japan and 1.85 million overseas. The lifetime sales total for Wii Sports is 47.62 million. While Wii Sports was bundled with the Wii in the U.S., it was not necessarily bundled elsewhere.

Last year during the same period, Wii Fit sold 3.42 million copies, Mario Kart Wii sold 6.42 million copies and Wii Sports sold 4.76 million copies.

"When I was in Best Buy the other day and saw the huge EA Sports Active displays it felt like we'd hit saturation but until we have Richard Simmons Wii Workout I don't think we've reached it,"says Ben Sawyer, who co-founded of the Serious Games Initiative and heads up the Games for Health initiative. "Famous last words, right?"

EA has been capitalizing in the last couple of months on the fitness game craze with half-a-million-plus seller EA Sports Active, but Nintendo lead the re-newed interest in "exergames" with Wii Sports and Wii Fit. In 2007, Nintendo was coming off its smash-hit Wii Remote and Wii Sports one-two-punch. Those successes laid the groundwork for Wii Fit: players got up off the couch, moved around, swung their arms. There was an audience for this — but there had always been. Thing is, it was a largely untapped audience.

During the early 1980s, the VCR revolution brought exercise into the home with Oscar-winning-actress Jane Fonda telling folks to "go for the burn" with her 1982 exercise debut Jane Fonda's Workout. The tapes sold millions and made millions. The same year computer maker Amiga released the Joyboard, a peripheral on which players would stand and use their body weight to play a slalom skiing game. It was a failure, and the two follow-up titles to support the peripheral were never released. Ditto for an Atari exercise-controlled bike that never found its way out of the concept stage. The exercise bike game would later be realized in 1996 by Namco with Prop Cycle.

There was a market that could be tapped, but it needed someone to do it. And do it right. Enter Nintendo.

The Kyoto-based game company brought the Power Pad to home consoles in 1988, letting kids jog in place on a mat marked with giant buttons. The next year, Namco followed up with Dance Aerobics for Nintendo Entertainment System, foreshadowing the deluge of rhythm dancing games released in the following decades.

While they were developing Konami's Dance Dance Revolution, Konami's own staffers were reporting weight loss. Same for players when it was finally released in the late 1990s. Konami continued to release updated versions of DDR with increasingly complicated steps. The home versions were more forgiving, but the arcade ones were not. In Japan, Konami has even introduced DDR exercise routines into its health club chain called "Groove Motion DDR". Group classes use digital projector screens showing DDR patterns, mats and motion sensor belts.

Nintendo has struck gaming gold with Wii Fit, selling over 18 million copies of the game. The follow-up, Wii Fit Plus, goes on sale later this year.

"When we first announced the Wii Balance Board, people were skeptical," recalls Denise Kaigler, Nintendo of America's vice president of Corporate Affairs. "But consumers responded quickly and told their friends about it. Now when a new fitness game like Wii Fit Plus is announced, no one bats an eye. Fitness games are now an accepted part of the video game landscape." Not only that — but the larger cultural landscape. In 2008, Nintendo teamed up with Westin Hotels to offer Wii Sports and Wii Fit as part of the hotel's fitness program.

Get up off your ass, sure, but why not get out of your house? Go take a walk. Jog. Trend or no trend, what's the point of exercising with a game indoors? Explains Nintendo's Kaigler, "Legendary Nintendo video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who led the Wii Fit team, is fond of saying, 'If it's sunny, go outside and play.'" Sometimes that's not always possible, she continues. "Sometimes it's because of the seasons or inclement weather. Other times it's situational: Some people come home late from work, while others can't leave the house because they can't leave the kids alone."

The medical profession has started latching onto these exergames. Geraldine O'Shea, D.O., an osteopathic physician and Chair of the American Osteopathic Association's Bureau on Scientific Affairs and Public Health, first began looking at the impact of video games as physical activity in 2007. "What might appear as nothing more than another entertaining game was revealed as a tool for not just activity but directed physical therapy," explains O'Shea.

Around the same time, researchers began using Wii Sports in physical therapy. O'Shea has spearheaded a measure by the American Osteopathic Association to support video games as part of a patient's fitness and therapeutic program. "Because I believe any activity is better than no activity," she adds, "I have become a convert."

"Wii gaming actually turns over more energy than sedentary gaming, but not as much as authentic sports," said Gareth Stratton, a co-author of British study on Wii Sports health benefits. "While it's not going to replace the real thing," Stratton told The New York Times, "it's certainly moving in the right direction." Several researchers conclude that Wii Fit does not replace regular exercise, but concede that the game has done something key: raised fitness awareness.

"I think it's more important to realize now that with Wii Fit and EA Active Sports we may be beyond this being a trend," says Sawyer. "We might really begin to see a genre emerge and stay."

Gamasutra has crunched the NPD video game sales numbers and the results show that the top five best-selling games on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 in the U.S. from January to the end of June were, save one 360 title, all released in 2009. The likes of UFC Undisputed, Resident Evil 5, Halo Wars and Killzone 2 top the charts, with just the Xbox 360 version of 2008's Call of Duty: World at War being the lone game from yesteryear.

The Wii, however, boasts just EA Sports Active among its five best-sellers of 2009 so far. The other four slots are taken up by Wii Fit (at #1), Wii Play (#2), Mario Kart Wii (#3) and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (#5).

The Wii news can be viewed in positive or negative lights. On the one hand, it suggests that no 2009 Wii offerings — not Punch-Out!, not Boom Blox Bash Party, not Sega's trio of hardcore-oriented originals — could garner top-level sales. But it also is a sign that the Wii, more so than its competitors, has managed to cultivate evergreen games that sell year after year.

Evergreen games are not unique to the Wii. In the previous hardware generation, the Grand Theft Auto games were monthly top-list entries on the PlayStation 2. Halo and Halo 2 consistently ranked among the best-selling games on the Xbox.

But the extent to which the Wii has established a selection of mainstay titles is striking in both how it compares to the competition and what it suggests about the longevity of games made for the platform. Critics long ago said Nintendo's console didn't have the power to run titles that would age well and seem relevant in a modern gaming market. That's proven to be wrong.

NPD: Behind the Numbers, June 2009 [Gamasutra]

(The following stats are pulled from the usage data shared by more than two million Wii users through the system's Nintendo Channel. For more information about how we calculate these total playtimes, check out this week's earlier Wii stats post)

Average Per-Gamer Playing Time For Nintendo's First-Party Wii Games (as of July 1)
(Release Dates in Parentheses)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (March 2008) — 68 hours, 51 minutes
Animal Crossing: City Folk (November 2008) — 54 hours, 16 minutes
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn (November 2007) – 46 hours, 40 minutes
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (November 2006) — 46 hours, 9 minutes
Wii Sports (November 2006) — 35 hours, 47 minutes
Mario Kart Wii (April 2008) – 31 hours, 40 minutes
Super Mario Galaxy (November 2007) — 27 hours, 37 minutes
Super Paper Mario (April 2007) — 24 hours, 13 minutes
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (August 2007) 21 hours, 37 minutes
Mario Party 8 (May 2007) — 20 hours, 39 minutes
Pokemon Battle Revolution (June 2007) — 20 hours, 2 minutes
Wii Fit (May 2008) — 18 hours, 18 minutes
Mario Super Sluggers (August 2008) — 17 hours, 39 minutes
Excite Truck – (November 2006) 12 hours, 39 minutes
Battalion Wars 2 (October 2007) — 12 hours, 23 minutes
WarioWare: Smooth Moves (January 2007) — 11 hours, 39 minutes
Excitebots: Trick Racing (April 2009) – 10 hours 56 minutes
Wii Play (February 2007) — 10 hours, 7 minutes
New Play Control! Pikmin (March 2009) – 9 hours, 44 minutes
Endless Ocean (January 2008) — 9 hours, 41 minutes
Wii Music (October 2008) — 9 hours, 17 minutes
Wario Land: Shake It! (September 2008) — 8 hours, 47 minutes
Punch-Out!! (May 2009) – 7 hours, 55 minutes
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (June 2007) — 6 hours, 56 minutes
Mario Strikers Charged (July 2007) — 6 hours, 18 minutes
New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis (March 2009) – 6 hours, 14 minutes
Link's Crossbow Training (November 2007) - 4 hours, 55 minutes
Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast (October 2007) — 4 hours, 41 minutes
New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (May 2009) – No Data Listed

After all, the Nintendo DS take on the Super Monkey Ball series, closely tied with Nintendo's varied platforms was called Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll. This potential game sounds equally creative in its title. If it means more Toshihiro Nagoshi face time, however, we're all for it.

The Wii already has a Super Monkey Ball game in the form of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, released in 2006 as a launch title for the system.

Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll [USPTO]

According to the report, the follow up to the 18 million unit selling Wii Fit will come with online functionality, allowing Wii Fit Plus users to compete with friends and family. We'll presume that means sharing your Wii Fit Plus work out data across the internet, as opposed to being stored locally only.

The Nikkei also makes mention of more accurate measurements in Wii Fit Plus, which could possibly come from the addition of Nintendo's new and similarly named Wii MotionPlus controller accessory.

More vaguely, the Nikkei writes that Nintendo has plans to release a new Mario title by the end of the year. That might not come as a surprise, as Nintendo head honcho Satoru Iwata dropped word at last year's E3 that the Mario and Zelda development teams were hard at work on new Wii games.

Whether that will be a marquee title on par with Super Mario Galaxy or something in which Mario doesn't play a starring role, we'll likely find out on Tuesday when Nintendo holds its E3 press conference.

Nintendo Releasing New Wii Fit This Fall [Nikkei - subscription required]

EA's got a Wii fitness game. It's called EA Sports Active.

Don't believe us? Try Googling it. But don't type in "EA Sports Active." Type in "EA Active." Note the sponsored links listed on the right.

What looks like an "EA Active" ad is an ad for Ubisoft's Gold's Gym Cardio Workout.

Nintendo's got a Wii fitness game. It's called Wii Fit.

You knew that? Just confirm that fact by Googling it. Type in Wii Fit. Note the sponsored links listed on the right. Hey, it's another Ubi ad!

It appears that someone or some company — Ubisoft? Gold's Gym? — is buying the Google keywords of competitive products to better promote their own game. We've contacted Ubisoft for comment on the ads.

Now this is the kind of aggressive, kick-the-competition advertising the gaming industry has lacked since Crash Bandicoot stopped trash-talking non-Sony consoles.

Makes you wonder what other keywords companies might want to buy. We can think of many candidates for ads that result from the search term "God of War" or "Brain Age."

According to independent market research group GfK Retail and Technology Australia, the game has sold over 520,000 copies in its one year on sale. The only Wii game that has sold more is Wii Play at 569,000 copies. Mario Kart Wii has sold 328,000.

Wii Fit conquering one continent at a time.

Almost a year, another Wii Fit appears on the internet. Though, we think this is a different girl from the previous Wii Fit Girl video. We're not sure why we think that. Call it a hunch — like the kind cops get. Anyway, enjoy!

Thanks Christian for the tip.