Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime made an intriguing acknowledgment last week.

"I do believe we'll get some negative feedback," said Fils-Aime, talking about the way the upcoming Wii Fit game will inform people that they're considered obese.

That's an assessment based on Body Mass Index, and you can read much more about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention use BMI to categorize adults as overweight or obese at this Web page: www.cdc.gov (put "BMI" in the search field).

The importance of Wii Fit is its likely appeal to the brand-new video-game fans hooked by the Wii's easy-to-use controls. Wii Fit is exactly the kind of non-traditional gaming entertainment that's supposed to pique the interest of all consumers and broaden the industry's customer base. Indeed, Nintendo currently seems to have gained a unique edge in the market compared to Sony with its PlayStation 3 and Microsoft with the Xbox 360.

But Wii Fit also may have a special turnoff factor: Players will be classified as being underweight, at ideal weight, overweight or obese when they establish their user profile. When Wii Fit was unveiled last year, Fils-Aime conceded that some people wouldn't see that as the kind of universally engaging experience that's central to the way Nintendo promotes itself.

"We had to make a hard call," Fils-Aime said during an interview at last week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. "But we went with the standard definitions associated with BMI. And we felt, candidly, that to move off of those standard definitions would have been false. It wouldn't have been right in terms of what we're trying to do with the consumer."

Fils-Aime said he understands people's sensitivities very personally. "You're looking at a person that BMI says is borderline obese," noted Fils-Aime - an ironic observation, given his reputation as the rock star executive of the game industry, with a snazzy stage presence and numerous personal fans.