Nintendo to launch Wii Fit in North America in May

AFP, February, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — Nintendo announced Wednesday that its exercise-oriented Wii Fit game, complete with Balance Board controllers, will go on sale in North America on May 19.

The Japanese maker of hot-selling Wii video game consoles revealed the launch date as it showed off Fit at a major Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.

"We are here to show developers what can be done with the Balance Board," Nintendo of America president Reginald Fils-Aime told AFP after finishing a virtual giant slalom ski race on Wii Fit on the GDC show floor.

A Balance Board measured Fils-Aime's body position and shifts of weight from foot to foot to maneuver an animated skier through an on-screen downhill course.

"We think it opens all types of possibilities for new kinds of games," Fils-Aime said.

Games for Wii Fit fall into four categories: strength ...