EA Sports Active eyes Natal, PS3 wand?

By Robert Purchese Published 20 January, 2010

But Wii Vitality Sensor not so appealing.

EA's keen to expand hit Wii exercise game EA Sports Active onto PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

European bigwig Dr Jens Uwe Intat wouldn't say how, but by putting two and two together - the motion-sensing requirements of the game and Microsoft and Sony's new motion sensors - a release for Natal and the PS3 wand, possibly called Arc, seems likely.

"What we are actually going to do is certainly continue to work with EA Sports Active on the Wii, and we'll also try to extend that to the other two platforms in order to broaden our activity in that space," Dr Intat told GamesIndustry.biz.

"How we will work on that specifically, and what type of software and for what type of hardware, we'll announce in the future."

Intat did not mention plans to support the Wii Vitality Sensor, despite being asked directly about the device.

In EA Sports Active, EA had achieved the Holy Grail by making a third-party game that sold serious quantities on Wii. The game provides a high-octane workout and coaches owners from fat to fit in the style of a personal trainer. Even weighted straps are thrown in to make life more difficult.

We thought highly of it, as our EA Sports Active review will point out.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • TeaFiend #1 2 years ago

    However, it is still cheaper to buy some exercise equipment that folds away than getting a Wii and the sports games.

  • patch #2 2 years ago

    possibly called Arc

  • altitude2k #3 2 years ago

    Regardless of whether you are interested in motion control or not, it's undeniable that Natal is far better suited to this sort of thing since it can analyse ANY position.

    Next up, EA Kama Sutra.

    EDIT: typo.
    Edited by 1 at 20/01/10 @ 13:15

  • ignatiusjreilly #4 2 years ago

    The game provides a high-octane workout and coaches owners from fat to fit in the style of a personal trainer.

    Cool. The last two games I bought only had 15mg of octane, which is a total rip-off for a £40 I'm sure you'll agree.

  • CallousB #5 2 years ago

    Any 3rd party with half a brain would be rushing to sign up Paul McKenna to do some Vitality Sensor based stop smoking/lose weight/self confidence hypnosis software for the Wii. The masses lap that stuff up.

  • Boomerang #6 2 years ago

    It's 'Kama Sutra', by the way. Not 'Karma'. Although a Korma Sutra sounds pretty good...

  • malteaserhead #7 2 years ago

    EA have done a pretty decent job with the Active brand and I think Natal (maybe moreso than Sony wand) would improve the experience in a lot of ways (getting rid of the leg strap, the tedium of trying to find comfortable ways to hold bands and controllers for different exercises, removing the restrictions the controller leads make, cutting out time wasted changing between all the aparatus for different exercises etc).

    Hopefully actions will be better recognised and it could really tighten up the form you have to take for some exercises. Of course Natal tech may introduce a whole new set of problems (including no cheating on horrid exercises ;)) but hey-ho.

  • Murton #8 2 years ago

    I get the feeling that this probably won't use the Wand/Arc, EA are going to be looking for a low cost conversion of their Wii success and having to develop a game to work well with both controllers may not prove compatible with that goal. What I think we're going to see once Natal hits the market are camera games on both consoles. After all, Natal isn't a million miles away from the PS-Eye, as we've seen with the GT5 head tracking feature, they're both capable of detecting and tracking body movement and translating that into controller input.

  • kangarootoo #9 2 years ago

    I saw this just earlier today, linked from the side of a BBC article about loan sharks of all things. Its quite old, but still interesting.

    [link url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8080436.stm?ls
    ]http://ne ws.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/80...[/link]

    There is a Natal article linked from the sidebar of this page too, for balance.

  • The-Bodybuilder #10 2 years ago

    I wonder what the stats are for people loosing weight using EA's active or Ninty board.
    Because most people I know that bought it for this reason....are still fat. But I guess buying a gaming software to loose weight pretty much sums them up.

  • tancredo #11 2 years ago

    Murton, PSeye cannot do full body tracking, so PS3 will need the controllers in hand, or strapped to the legs or whatever idea they come up with

    Natal, can do full body tracking, so in theory, the exercise body-motion capture should be better

    In theory. Will have to wait until both systems are out to pass judgement

  • smelly #12 2 years ago

    I love how people "know" what natal can do without actually using it themselves yet.

    sheesh - when did people start to actually believe anything molyneux says?