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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Figures show average Wii Fit player used Balance Board four times in a month. Has Nintendo failed?

vaio on 25 June 2008

Figures show average Wii Fit player used Balance Board four times in a month. Has Nintendo failed?


When Shigeru Miyamoto first thought up the concept for Wii Fit, he began by tracking his diet and weight loss on a graph, a pastime he imagined the majority of Wii Fit consumers would buy into with a Balance Board and a sprinkling of Nintendo magic. However, one month after Wii Fit's launch in North America, figures show that the software has been played less than four times on each console.

The latest data comes from the Nintendo Channel (which gathers the statistics from players who have given permission for their time spent exer-gaming to be measured). They reveal that the average Wii Fit user has logged just 8 hours and 25 minutes of playtime, and only 3.8 sessions. These numbers don't look good for a game that is supposed to encourage daily workouts and help people track the state of their health, especially if Nintendo has totted up the total of multiple Balance Board users per machine.

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The data is, of course, somewhat skewed by the fact that not everyone has opted to have their Wii Fit use recorded, and also by the length of time players have owned the software (although on this latter point, given nearly all Wii Fit stock was snapped up on the day of its release and has been near-impossible to find ever since, we can assume that most have had Wii Fit in their homes for close to four weeks now). Nevertheless it doesn't make fantastic reading, and only adds fuel to the argument of those who have dubbed Wii Fit's presence as a throwaway fad from the beginning.

The situation may improve as 2008 further unfolds, but that the typical Wii Fit owner has used a $90 USD product defined by many as a revolution in exercise for only around 505 out of a possible 43,829 minutes in a month (a notable proportion of which is spent flicking between menus instead of working out) isn't a great sign at all.

The phenomenal sales of Wii Fit mean that no one can deem it an unsuccessful business venture (Nintendo's $40 million promotional budget made sure of that), but in more personal terms, has Wii Fit made as big an impact on the wellbeing of the nation as many predicted it would? 15 minutes a day, we suppose, is quarter an hour more than a lot of players were exercising before...

http://www.balanceboardblog.com/2008/06/figures-show-average-wii-fit-use-is.html

 

What do you guys think? Have they failed? too early to judge?

 



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mesoteto on 25 June 2008

no they got the board on market and other companies are getting into it as well



 

d21lewis on 25 June 2008

Nintendo hasn't failed. It's not their fault. I blame Wii Fit.



Bursche on 25 June 2008

How has Nintendo failed? They invented and sold millions of copies of this "miracle". They began it, but it isnt up to them how successful it is after the consumer purchases it.

Theres no way to make anyone work out on Wii Fit after they buy it, just like theres no way to make anyone play Brain Age consistently and get "smarter". All Nintendo did was create the opportunity for people to better themselves, while making a bundle in profits as well.



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nordlead on 25 June 2008

However, that is only a small sample of the actual market. I happen to be one of the people lowering the statistics. I bought it, played a couple times, and then proceeded to move.

Now I play Wii Fit on my brothers console, which doesn't report usage statistics, but Wii Fit is used 2 times a day.




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HappySqurriel on 25 June 2008

Several factors play into this ...

  1. Only people who signed up for the Nintendo Channel have their statistics gathered. Many people (including a large cunk of Wii Fits target audience) will not sign up for this service.
  2. Wii Fit is selling at a pretty steady rate, and new users will heavily influence the average sessions and play time; What's the average of 14, 10, 6, and 1?
  3. Unfortunately, like any "Fitness" routine, there will be a (farily) large number of people who use it once and never use it again; and another (fairly) large number of people who only dabble with it. If you have 25% of your users giving up after the first or second use, and another 25% who only use it once or twice a week, your average will be low.
  4. There are (probably) a lot of "Core" gamers who bought Wii Fit for the balance board and not (necessarily) for the fitness program. These gamers may have only used Wii Fit once and skewed the statistics.


lenardo1 on 25 June 2008

i have not inputted my info yet.

my wiifit gets ~5-6hrs a week. just from ME.



Bodhesatva on 25 June 2008

Actually, Squirrel, I think the biggest factor would be that this is a new game, and new purchasers have a significant downward effect on usage trends. For example:

Person A bought the game when the game came out a month ago, and has played it 8 times.
Person B bought the game yesterday, and has played it 1 time so far.
Person C bought the game a week ago, and has played it 3 times so far.

That would give a 4 average. You'll see usage stats go way up for any game as the number of new users decreases and those that have the game have gotten good time in with it.



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Naum on 25 June 2008

And some people probably just bought Wii Fit to get the balance Board since there are alot of games coming for it soon.

I dont think Nintendo will sell the balance board without the Fit game.

Maybe in the future.



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HappySqurriel on 25 June 2008
Bodhesatva said:

Actually, Squirrel, I think the biggest factor would be that this is a new game, and new purchasers have a significant downward effect on usage trends. For example:

Person A bought the game when the game came out a month ago, and has played it 8 times.
Person B bought the game yesterday, and has played it 1 time so far.
Person C bought the game a week ago, and has played it 3 times so far.

That would give a 4 average. You'll see usage stats go way up for any game as the number of new users decreases and those that have the game have gotten good time in with it.

 

I agree, I was just trying to point out how the average may not be truely representative of how successful they have been ...

Even if the "Average" remains this low I'm not sure you could call Wii Fit a failure. I have worked out for years, and quite awhile ago I heard that upon starting a workout plan (on average) only 1 in 8 people are still doing it 6 weeks after they start it; if Wii Fit can keep 1/4 of people interested enough to use Wii Fit 3 (or more) times per week in the long run it can be considered a very successful product.