Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2008 > August > 20 > Entry
Videogames, healthcare and you
Local blogger James Cooley has posted a fascinating item about the possibilities in the intersection of gaming and healthcare (yes, they do exist. No, I’m not lying.).
The massive success of “Wii Fit” and the recent announcement of a deal for Netflix to offer its on-demand videos via the Xbox 360 are jumping-off points for Cooley to speculate on a future where fitness content is broadcast through videogame platforms and games themselves incorporate heart-rate-increasing activities to the gameplay itself.
Cooley knows much more about the healthcare industry than I ever will, but speaking from a gaming/consumer tech point of view, I think the potential is there, but perhaps the will may not be.
“Wii Fit” is a success, and sure people will try to cash in with imitation, but I’m not sure if that cone of flattery will extend beyond products for the Wii itself, a platform that it built for the mainstream and founded upon the principles of activity and tactile sensation.
Do they Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (and PC gaming services like Steam for that matter) lend themselves as readily to promoting even the idea of getting up off the couch/computer chair? Sadly, they really don’t. Expecting people to turn on their Xbox 360 to get a workout strikes me as expecting people to go to McDonald’s and come back with a vegan sandwich.
Just because the mechanisms are there for healthy content to be delivered doesn’t mean that anyone will take the initiative to do so, especially when Microsoft and Sony are so focused on beating back the suffocating stink of defeat that Nintendo has so flatulated upon them.
Could they do the things Cooley suggests? They could. Will they? I doubt it.
But these are great ideas and maybe the movement that Cooley things could happen would come from the indie scene. It won’t be the $60 retail titles that drive something like this, it’ll be cheap but fun peripherals (Xbox 360-compatible jump rope, maybe?) and a $10 downloadable game.
Health content is one niche, and there are plenty others, which could be driven down these emerging video/gaming pipes. But there are only so many eyeballs and only so many pipes. Making these experiences engaging enough to break through the crowded marketplace and to get hardcore gamers as excited about them as Wii gamers are about their toys will be the real challenge.
(NOTE: I still can’t find a #*()& “Wii Fit” in stores, three months after it was released. And don’t think I haven’t tried.)
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