Nintendo’s New Health Direction

Nintendo’s sales have been on the decline lately. The Wii U didn’t sell as well as the company expected. This has prompted analysts and critics to pressure Nintendo into going the mobile gaming route, but Nintendo won’t be pressured. Instead of turning to mobile gaming, Nintendo announced today that the company is moving in an entirely different direction – one that focuses on a person’s overall well being.

Nintendo Looks at Health

Some of Nintendo’s most popular games are the health sort. From yoga to indoor tennis matches, those that still buy Nintendo consoles do so in order to engage in the health side of gaming. It makes perfect sense, then, to focus more on health and less on anything else. A Nintendo spokesperson told press today that the company has “…decided to redefine entertainment as something that improves people’s quality of life in enjoyable ways…” while also maximizing the company’s profits. What better way to accomplish this task than to target the at home health crowd?

After all, health isn’t exactly an area that’s odd or strange to Nintendo. The Wii Balance Board (or scale, as some people call it) is still wildly popular, and the original Wii also included games that were meant to get people up and moving. Nintendo might have a huge market here, too. There are a lot of people that are much more comfortable playing a video game or stepping on a scale indoors than heading to a gym for the first time.

Plus, studies have shown that Nintendo games do, in fact, help to increase a person’s overall fitness level while helping those same people lose pounds. This is a market that Nintendo has been cultivating for a while now, though I’m not certain that it was all part of a master plan.

A Light Shines Brightly

Nintendo has been facing some bad numbers lately, and gamers have all but given up on the company. Sometimes, though, it’s the light at the end of those dark tunnels that can turn things around. The only real competition Nintendo has in the health gaming field are various wrist bands that integrate with mobile apps, but that’s really not the same thing as a complete in-home health gaming system.

It may be unusual (and not how the brand started at all), but Nintendo might just be grabbing onto the most profitable market by focusing on the health crowd.

Company spokespeople have stated that Nintendo will be developing additional health-focused games and accessories in the near future. This means that you can look forward to more fitness games and other device from Nintendo soon. Will the future of Nintendo be for serious gamers looking for a bit of blood and gore? It doesn’t look that way at all; but the fitness crowd is going to love what Nintendo will be cooking up.

How do you feel about this change in Nintendo’s plans? Are you part of the Nintendo fitness crowd, or do you wish the company would go back to old school gaming?