Wii Vitality Sensor is Officially Dead

[IBNobody]

"We have not been able to launch it as a commercial product because we could not get it to work as we expected and it was of narrower application than we had originally thought," he told investors. According to Iwata's estimates, approximately 90 out of 100 people were able to use the Vitality Sensor without a hitch, though he (thankfully) requires that it work with "1,000 of 1,000 people." However, he admitted "but [since we use the living body signal with individual differences] it is a little bit of a stretch to make it applicable to every single person."

So... The Wii has no more vitality?

Seriously... It's interesting that they wanted to get this to work 100% on everyone, and yet they released the 3DS which was already known to not work on 10% of the population. Where does Nintendo draw the line on gimmickry?


Source (Engadget)

 

[GameWinner]

It was dead the moment it was announced.
EDIT: 90 out of 100 was not good enough?

 

[Gahars]

Didn't even need the vitality sensor to tell this thing had no pulse.

 

[Taleweaver]

Seriously... It's interesting that they wanted to get this to work 100% on everyone, and yet they released the 3DS which was already known to not work on 10% of the population. Where does Nintendo draw the line on gimmickry?

That's an easy answer: a heartbeat that doesn't work 100% for someone actually works 0% for that person. Unlike the 3DS: it's not exactly useless if you can't see the 3D effect in those.

It's impossible to satisfy 100% of your customers. There are always manufacturing errors* and people who complain no matter what happens. But if 10% is guaranteed to come back because it doesn't work, and there is no proper way to pinpoint in advance to whom it'll work or not, that could spell disaster.

So that in itself is already a very good reason to cancel the product.

And also...a heartbeat sensor? That'll be a hard sell for a gaming audience.




*for illustration: just yesterday, someone returned a laptop to me because the enter key was stuck. The thing was three days old and still in perfect mint condition.

 

[Sicklyboy]

This is the first I have ever heard of this peripheral.

 

[Monty Kensicle]

It would have been good in the horror/survival genre. make more enemies spawn when it knows you're scared or excited.

 

[TripleSMoon]

It would have been good in the horror/survival genre. make more enemies spawn when it knows you're scared or excited.

Not really. The fact that you can only use the wiimote one-handed, and without the nunchuck would severely limit the kind of traditional games you could play with it. Games would have to be on rails, for starters.

 

[the_randomizer]

Didn't even need the vitality sensor to tell this thing had no pulse.

I guess the vital sensor never had any signs of life to begin with

 

[Sicklyboy]

This gets released.

Suddenly: Wii Multitap

 

[Ace Overclocked]

Totally didn't see this one coming.

 

[Taleweaver]

It would have been good in the horror/survival genre. make more enemies spawn when it knows you're scared or excited.

So those already scared (and thus totally 'in' the game) gets sucked in even more, while the adepts who basically snore whenever a monster shows up or scary sound blasts through the speakers get even less thrills than normal? No. Sorry. If anything, I'd rather inverse that idea (during fighting scènes, keep adding the difficulty until their heartbeat makes sure they're entertained). But I think experimenting with music that resonates more to your heartbeat will do more to enthrall you in the game.

But yeah...xwatchmanx already mentioned it: the whole setup of the device limits (or rather: would have limited) its use more than anything. I can think of just one wiimote-only game that would benefit from it (house of the dead: overkill). And that's a pretty limited market.


I was going to say something like "but sport enthousiasts would probably miss this"...but I doubt it. Thanks to some coupons, I was able to buy a 120€ sports watch with GPS and a heartbeat sensor for only 20€, yet I still regret that purchase. I jog regularly, but the thing is somewhere collecting dust because I can't bring myself to care about heartbeats and statistics about how well I did.

 

[Foxi4]

1000 out of 1000 or bust, huh? That didn't stop them from releasing the 3DS.

Something tells me that the real reasons for not releasing it were that it clung to the player's finger, restricting the ability to control the game and was generally useless in the long run.

 

[lismati]

1000 out of 1000 or bust, huh? That didn't stop them from releasing the 3DS.

As Taleweaver already said - even if you don't see the 3D effect, the 3DS is still good for playing games and can give quite a bit of entertainment. With the vitality sensor it's different, either it works perfectly or it doesn't do shit, apart from stopping you from using the nunchuck, that being quite a deal breaker.

Also, inb4VitalitySensorPrototypeOver9000$OnEbay

 

[Bladexdsl]

that thing was bound to flat-line anyway. imagine trying to play with that stupid thing attached to your finger

 

[Snailface]

The need to check if GrandPa is still alive after collapsing playing Wii Fit is no longer on the company's radar.

 

[gokujr1000]

Before now I've never heard of this.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Solution: make a little tweak and have it be compatible with those blood pressure machines in pharmacy stores and the like (is that even common outside the US? Serious question). You can call it WiiCVS.

 

[luigiman1928]

I thought common sense didn't count for news?

 

[Tigran]

Remember.... Nintendo having a heart monitor is stupid!

Xbox having a heart monitor is cool!

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Remember.... Nintendo having a heart monitor is stupid!

Xbox having a heart monitor is cool!

That'd be a cool double standard if people thought the Xbox One "heart monitor" wasn't dumb as well. Not to mention that the Xbox One's "heart monitor" is included with the console and is unobtrusive.