EA making Wii fitness game

By Johnny Minkley Published 8 May, 2008

Moore's mission to get gamers sweating.

Watch out - Peter Moore wants to make you sweat. The EA Sports president has revealed his division is working on a fitness game for Wii that utilises the balance board peripheral. The unannounced title will release under the newly-created Freestyle label and focus on more "western" cardio-vascular workouts, compared with the "eastern holistic fitness" of Nintendo's Wii Fit.

Speaking during a major three-day EA Sports showcase at the publisher's Vancouver HQ, Moore spoke of his admiration for Nintendo's breakthrough hit and the opportunities it has created.

"We're watching very closely what the Wii Fit board does," he said. "We think we have to have a role to play with that mum - the kids have gone to school, she's got 45 minutes on her own, the Wii is there, it's the first console she's ever liked because she can do things herself. And we're working on stuff, trying to work out how we can use EA Sports applications there."

But Moore, a former physical education instructor, insisted EA's product would go down a different route from Wii Fit, with a greater focus on strenuous fun.

"I need to have a point of difference," he explained. "We also need to make sure we're delivering something that's truly exercise. I'll call [Wii Fit] more eastern fitness, where it senses weight and balance, like Tai-Chi. It's more about holistic fitness. I don't think the board is going to take a pounding. We need to look more at western fitness in which I can actually be moving and start to sweat a little bit, and that's what we're working on right now."

While the former Xbox boss would not be drawn on specifics, he was keen to emphasise that EA, like Nintendo, was focusing on fitness through "fun". "It can't feel like a workout," he added. "The team has to figure out, how do I smile while I'm doing this? You play soccer for 90 minutes; if I say you're going to run five miles you're not gonna want to do that. But you run for five miles playing soccer and you've had a good time.

"The difference is you're distracted. We need to distract people and not make this exercise feel like work, but like they're having fun. So mini-games, things where you're actually laughing out loud, that's the stuff we're working on. It's something I've always been passionate about, and who better than us to go and play in that market?"

EA Sports Freestyle replaces the previous 'Big' brand, with cartoon boxing title Facebreaker confirmed as the first release on the label, due later this year.

Picture of Johnny.

About Johnny Minkley

Eurogamer TV's Johnny Minkley is a veteran journalist with a lifelong passion for games and the games industry. He uses Twitter more than most people use air.

Read more articles from Johnny by visiting the Johnny Minkley archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 8 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Charlie_Miso #1 4 years ago

    A Wii fit game - what a great concept!

  • DaM #2 4 years ago

    It's the new EA at last - innovation and originality, not cashing in with second rate ripoffs.

    Oh......

  • Marshall2008 #3 4 years ago

    What we all want is Wii Fit Sex

    Wi Fit Sex requires 2 Wii fit boards for maximum stimulation. Solo play also available*

    2 players are put through the Kama Sutra and judged on their performance by Mario & Sonic

    Beat your friends:
    A weekly 'Score' board keeps track of your stats and enables you to compete with your friends

    On-line competitions:
    On-line play enables you to compete directly with friends in real-time (matches may only last a few seconds!)

    Play away from home:
    Take your profile and Wii fit board to a friends house to playing with different partners or swap partners to increase your score

    *Solo play requires the additional adaptors for the Wii remote (Wiipole or Wiisleeve) sold separately

  • TriggerHippie #4 4 years ago

    What could EA bring to Wii fit? I expect they'll have a super annoying "DJ" that will make you want to punch someone. A couple of dozen tracks of Christina Aguilera singing in Spanish which will make you want to punch yourself. Automatic micropayments to EA everytime your weight changes from your last weigh-in. A Gillian McKeith rectal nunchuk addon that tests your stools in absolutely no explainable or scientific way, but tells you what a fat bastard you are.

    EA-PHiT...its in your arse.

  • paketep #5 4 years ago

    Are they also going to have it phone home every 10 days, and not let you exercise if your internet connection is down or your Wii is not connected?

  • peterfll #6 4 years ago

    More strenuous? More? More than Wii Fit?

    No ta.

  • NickD7 #7 4 years ago

    Games developers seem to forget that gamers are lazy bastards, which is why we are inside playing games in the first place. Activity is our enemy. We have our games, pot belly, pale skin,

    the rest of the world has their attractive women, fitness, cool factor.

    You can't mix the two.
    Edited by 1 at 08/05/08 @ 11:47

  • Cannibal #8 4 years ago

    Thing is, they are not targeting gamers. They are targeting mums and people who don't have time for the gym. More of a casual base than hardcore gamers.

  • TriggerHippie #9 4 years ago

    Brilliant! They can release half a dozen different sponsored versions of it too. Wii-Phit: MacDonalds Edition etc.

  • kangarootoo #10 4 years ago

    "compared with the "eastern holistic fitness" of Nintendo's Wii Fit"

    Translates as "compared with the 'its kind of fun, but doesn't actually make you fitter' of Nintendo's Wii Fit".


    "Games developers seem to forget that gamers are lazy bastards"

    Clearly Wii fit is not aimed at your average gamer, just like the Wii itself isn't aimed at your average gamer. Its not that devs forget this, its that they have realised that your average gamer doesn't have very much money and already has a gazzillion other games clammering for their attention.

  • spekkeh #11 4 years ago

    Sounds great actually. I love Wii Fit (note: I'm a core gamer for over 20 years, and am not a mum in midlife crisis or something), but I'll probably lose interest in a month or two in the exercises on offer. Now there's two things in Wii fit that could do with improvement: tougher exercises and mini games that actually do something for your health, instead of the balance games present now. If EA manages to address this, I'm in.

  • VMerken #12 4 years ago

    Don't forget to add that cool copy protection scheme from Mass Effect too, Peter. The Wii is connected to the interwebs, you know! =)

  • The-Bodybuilder #13 4 years ago

    I hate this game already.

  • gaggan #14 8 months ago

    i like herbs and supplement that i can make my own program, because the ones they include don't really have as much cardio as i would like atkins diet. when the controllers don't register that i'm doing an exercise properly it is really really annoying , but i figured out how to skip