Wii Fit opening new doors for health conscious consumers
Interesting article over at RWJF by Nedra Weinreich discussing the merits and challenges of marketing health-focused video games, and what we have learned over the past couple of years.
From the article:
The way health games should be framed depends on to whom you are talking. For health professionals and funders, positive research results are the key. Focus on the games as an intervention that has demonstrated success (and work hard to accumulate the hard evidence to back up your claims). Parents and teachers will respond best to an emphasis on learning and skills building that will serve to help the kids stay healthy as they navigate through life. For kids? It’s got to be all about fun. If it’s not fun, the game needs at least to be interesting enough to capture their attention.
But what makes this new wave of health games, including recent pushes by EA and Ubisoft, any different from the Dance Dance Revolution fad that tried to sweep gym classes across the country just a couple of years ago? Nedra says it best:
And game producers will be concerned with one thing: are games for health marketable The Wii and Wii Fit have been game-changers (pardon the pun) in their popularity and may open up many more doors in this direction.
Nintendo has definitely busted the door wide open and, instead of going for the kids alone, they’ve made undoubted strides in marketing to the real core consumer in this area – and those are the consumers who will get more penetration in places like those school gyms.
What do you think? Is this just another fad, or will we see some real, consistent adoption in the coming years.
[Full article at RWJF Blogs] {link no longer active}
