Nintendo's announcement of the Wii Vitality Sensor at E3 was met with some amount of befuddlement and a heap of "WTF?" But Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime says, eventually, you will say "Wow, I get it."
Reggie tells Fast Company that the same confusion—and maybe even some mockery—followed the introduction of the Nintendo DS and the Wii Remote, two Nintendo endeavors that have turned out to be pretty darn successful. He says we should expect the same forehead-smacking understanding of the Vitality Sensor's capabilities when the software is shown.
"Until you have that software, it's tough to understand," Fils-Aime says. "If I told you that you would be standing on an oversized bathroom scale, and having fun doing it, you probably would have said, 'Reggie, I don't get it.' And yet here we are with the balance board arguably as the third largest development platform across the globe."
The whole point of this pulse-monitoring device, Reggie says, is finding a new audience, one "who hasn't yet been compelled with the first-person shooter, or an action side-scrolling adventure, or a fitness game."
Oh, I get it, Reg. I'm on board. If someone can sell me a copy of Am I Dead Yet? via WiiWare, consider me personally compelled.
Nintendo's Innovation Console: A Q&A With Reggie Fils-Aime [Fast Company]