Doing a little research today I discovered that there are over 20 games that either are out already, or are in development (and the publisher has confirmed), that can/will use the balance board. And it goes without saying that these games were commited to before there were 8 million boards in the hands of consumers.

Now, obviously these games aren't having any impact yet. Today Nintendo can't make boards fast enough to keep up with the demand for Wiifit. But someday the supply will meet the demand, and at that point I wonder if the growing library of other games that use the board might start being a selling point for it.

If 20+ games are in production at this point, how many might be in production when there are over 10 million boards on the market? If Wiifit on its own can sell 10 million (or perhaps 15 or 20 million) copies, how high might the sales go if there are a few gems amoungst the games made for it?

Perhaps 15 or 20? I think 20mil is a given, the "perhaps" is more like Pokemon Red/Green/Blue sales or more (~30mil).

I don't think it will get much of a boost from anything else. I doubt any big games will come that will be significantly improved by the use of the balance board. The possibilities are pretty limited, as it's a single player deal.

Very little impact I suspect. However if Snowboarding or skateboarding on the balance board proves to be exceptional, and the board becomes available seperately from WiiFit then I can see 3rd party games pushing additional sales of it.

Also if Tiger Woods uses the balance board and WiiMotion Plus to recreate golf swings closely enough that it can actually give you pointers to improve your REAL golf swing then that'll sell 1m boards there alone.

However, for now the majority of games using it are like Rayman Rabbids and Tetris Party were the use is pretty unsubstancial and certainly not worth shelling out money for WiiFit if you weren't inclined to buy it in the first place.

It depends if you'll be able to find a Balance Board packaged with something else other than Wii Fit in the future.

yeah not many people will buy wii fit just to use a balance board in skate it

I don't disagree with you, I just wanted to picked numbers that were on the low side; I figured if I said 20 million or 30 million people disagreeing with those figures might hijack the thread.

Agreed, the functionality we are seeing right now is limited, and from what I have read poorly executed.

But at some point there will be enough balance boards on the market to make it worth while to target a game at it. Sure some will argue that it cuts down the size of your potential buyers, but if it creates a unique experience it could result in a higher attach rate amoungst that smaller market.

If you are planning on making the 200th party game for the wii, it could be worth you while to make it unique in some way.

Alternatively, if you are planning on making a game for the wii that doesn't appeal to the consoles normal demographs using every feature available (wiimote + motion plus + balance board), and using them well could make a real hardware mover.

Of course this is all theory, but I remain impressed that so many games have some balance board functionality when clearly most of these developers commited to some usage of the balance board before it became such a huge hit, and the fact so many commited so early makes me think there may be alot more and alot better to come.

Wii Fit is currently almost the only software boosting the balance board's sales. Imagine it's sales when there will be 5 softwares boosting it.