From the get-go, Nintendo's latest console was seen as a dream come true for folks who'd love to lose a few pounds, yet would rather log a few hours on the couch rather than the track. Shortly after the Wii Fit's launch, we're already seeing another wave of dedicated users reporting weight loss, and the trend is even bleeding into the medical field. According to Sue Stanley-Green, a professor of athletic training at Florida Southern College, the Wii Fit and other fitness-related games have "great potential for core strengthening and rehabilitation and may boost compliance with rehabilitation exercises." She also noted that these games were "being used more and more in nursing homes," and particularly with youngsters, titles such as Wii Fit are the only ones that stand a chance at getting them active.
» Read More 

Wii Fit is causing unprecedented damage in living rooms across the nation, with nearly a fifth of polled women admitting they have got carried away with it.Flower pots, television sets and even pets have all been affected by the high kicks and hula hoop exercises that are a part of Wii Fit.In a poll conducted by insurer Sheila's Wheels, women admitted they had caused an average of £6.55 worth of damage in the last year. ... » Read More

Rocky Balboa might have already hung up his boxing gloves for the last time, but demand for such a classic franchise's return will always remain strong.

Thank goodness for people YouTube stars like this, who have re-imagined what Sly Stallone's return would involve if his training for a deadly bout revolved squarely around Wii Fit. Is that Hollywood Balance Board Blog hears calling?
» Read More 

Kotaku writes: "Those naughty librarian eyeglasses might say say yes-yes, but a New York City woman says, no-no, they're not hers. You see, there's Lauren Bernat, aka Wii Fit Girl, who hulaed her way to 2 million YouTube views about three weeks ago, and then vowed it was not a viral marketing scheme. And then there's Lauren Bernat, mild-mannered librarian, who's been deluged with Facebook requests from cretinous pic collectors admirers who'd like to better know Wii Fit Girl. Non-Wii Fit Lauren wants everyone to know she's trying to get a job, and the attention isn't good for that.

Librarian Lauren says she does resemble Wii Fit Girl Lauren, enough that an employer who Googles her might have second thoughts about her temperament for a serious job. "If someone has my business card, and doesn't know what I look like, and they Google me, it looks like it's me, and that's my whole career down the tubes," she said."
» Read More 

People have watched Florida's Lauren Bernat do the "Wii Fit" hula in her underwear more than 2.7 million times since May 25. That's when her boyfriend uploaded a clip he says he secretly filmed.

Who knew so many people needed such extra insight to decide whether "Wii Fit" was for them?

Bernat's path to stardom is next taking her to TRL. The world's favorite "Wii Fit girl" will appear on the show Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern/Pacific to talk about her video and, of course, to demo the Wii live.
» Read More 

MCV: Title misses out on Top 40 chart position for third week in a row
» Read More 

Suspiciously virally PR looking blog Wii Fit is It recounts the tale of one man who submitted the purchase price of Wii Fit as his yearly company exercise expense, and he got it approved.
» Read More 

Maconsole Write

"CNN recently had a feature on 'gaming for health'. As you might expect, the focus was on the newly released Wii Fit and a doctor discusses some various research which is going on with regardings to gaming and health"
» Read More 

MCV: Following Wii Fit's spectacular plummet from the All Formats Chart, Nintendo has told MCV that it is doing everything it can to resolve the game's UK stock shortage.
» Read More 

Despite the success of Wii Fit around the world, it has also faced its fair share of criticism, whether it be the bungled BMI analysis or being a poor excuse for 'real' exercise.

Balance Board Blog writes that one gaming journalist, Ricky Bills, is certainly planet firmly within the negative camp, explaining that Wii Fit is for zombies, and that "disguising a balance board as a substitute for a healthy diet and exercise routine seems a disservice to Wii consumers."
» Read More 

Gamespot writes: Nintendo has been plagued with hardware supply problems for its latest console, the Wii, since it launched in December 2006. The issues continued throughout 2007, with the company unable to meet demand for its latest console in other regions, including both the US and UK.
» Read More 

GameIndustry reports:

Billy Pidgeon, analyst for research firm IDC, has warned Nintendo that its success with the Wii console could backfire if it doesn't work on managing consumer expectation.

Shortages of the fitness-based title Wii Fit have been widely reported, but are being felt most keenly in the US, and Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes that Nintendo is shipping four times as many units to Europe to maximise on the profits yielded by the strong Euro.

"The shortage demonstrates one consequence of the weak dollar. We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere," Pachter told the LA Times.

"They know that Americans will be just as fat a few months from now," he added, estimating that only 500,000 copies have been sold in the US, compared to 2 million in Europe.

But Pidgeon expressed his concern over the patience of US gamers waiting for more stock to become available...
» Read More 

Joystiq writes: Americans have been buffeted with news of our nation's pending recession and the devaluation of our dollar for months now, but in a market with such standardized prices, the American video game industry and game consumers haven't really felt the effect of our economic instability
» Read More 

"By the way, when you're promoting a Twinkie-focused lifestyle, Wii Fit is not really in keeping with the tradition of video games."
- Activision CEO, Bobby Kotick
» Read More 

Nintendo has issued a response addressing heavy Wii Fit gamers who exceed the Wii Balance Board's 330 pound weight limit.
» Read More 

You may recall the mini article WiiFitChat.com wrote about Rocket Company's Wii Exercise, a title that is set to offer a more physically exhausting workout than Wii Fit, thanks to an emphasis on shadow boxing, sit-ups and push-ups.

Originally planned for a release in Japan this summer, Wii Fit Chat's correspondence with the firm suggests that this may now not happen. Rocket Company's Hiroyuki Hashida explained that development of Wii Exercise was still in "an early stage" and was reluctant to reveal any further details about the exer-gaming title.
» Read More 

Wii Fit is currently unavailable everywhere in the UK. You can but it from eBay for over £120, but other than that you'll just have to wait.

That could explain it's disappearance from the UK Top Ten. In fact it's lying currently at number 40 in the retail charts.
» Read More 

Nintendo's phenomenal-selling Wii Fit has had the worst week of its existence in the UK ¿ dropping all the way out of the ChartTrack/ELSPA All Formats top 40.
» Read More 

Next-Gen.Biz reports that the PlayStation 3 version of Grand Theft Auto IV took the top spot in the latest German and Swedish software charts, while Wii Fit overhauled the Rockstar title in Spain.

GTA IV for PS3 maintained its lead in the German chart and jumped above the Xbox 360 version in Sweden during the week ended May 18, but fell to second place behind Wii Fit in Spain.

Nintendo's Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii again made top five appearances across all three charts.

In total nine game for Wii charted across the three top tens, as did six titles for PC, five for DS, three for PS3 and 360 (all GTA IV), three for PS2 and one for PSP.
» Read More 

The way Nintendo's advertising for Wii Fit has been, it's clear that the firm has been, in the main, focusing its attention on luring women to the charms of its new title.

To see if they'd succeeded, Florida's Orange County Register invited a group of Mom-bloggers to their offices, reports WiiFitChat.com, and gave them some playtime with Wii Fit. Whilst a few of them enjoyed the experience, the majority came away feeling disappointed.

Referring to Wii Fit's developers, Jenny Angelici stated that Nintendo "don't know what girls want. They don't know what girls like."
» Read More