A new workout for the Wii Video

A new workout for the Wii Video Transcript

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>> Caroline McCarthy: Hey, I'm Caroline McCarthy for cnet.com. Today, game maker Ubisoft gave us a preview of their upcoming game, Your Shape, which is basically a fitness video game on steroids. Two years ago Nintendo kicked off the workout game craze when it released Wii Fit for its Wii console which is now one of the best selling video games in history. Now, Ubisoft's Your Shape also is for the Wii console, but what makes it different is that it uses a camera to track your movements, project them on screen, and have you follow along with a virtual trainer who makes sure you don't slack off.

>> Even if she wasn't there, just seeing yourself will make you perform the exercise better.

>> Because you can correct yourself.

>> Call your attention to your leg.

>> So there have been fitness games for the Wii already, most notably the Wii Fit game, but this sort of takes video game fitness to a new level.

>> Right.

>> How what kind of impact do you hope to make, and who do you hope to target with this?

>> Wii Fit was a fantastic product because it opened up the market, but if the market's gonna grow we need to innovate, and we feel like the camera inside Your Shape is the next level of interactive fitness because it can put you on the screen and actually provide feedback whether or not you're doing the exercise properly. And that's never been done before.

>> But if this game proves to be a hit, it's not just gonna be a big deal for Ubisoft. This could help get Nintendo itself back into shape. Sales of the Wii are on the decline and as a result Nintendo's profit last quarter plunged 52?percent from the previous year. Do you think that this will potentially reinvigorate some of the excitement into the Wii that there was a few years ago?

>> Well, innovation solves a lot of problems. You know, when you're bringing in a new piece of equipment like a camera to a Wii, which has never been done before on any Wii game, is a camera that plugs into the USB port of the Wii then you've got an opportunity to get people excited again. And I think that Your Shape has the opportunity to do really well because it's something new. The Wii is still a great machine and what it needs is great content, and so we think we're doing that.

>> Will we see the camera used in any future games that potentially have totally different angles to them?

>> We believe the camera is a big part of the future of interactive gaming in general and so do hardware companies too, Microsoft and Sony. So the camera is here to stay. And this particular camera, which we created on our own, is definitely something we want to look forward to in other genres of gaming if not future fitness games but dancing or other ideas or sports where a camera actually would add to the experience.

>> There hasn't been a big hit in a while for the Wii which can't handle the kinds of graphics and intense gaming of the two closest competitors, Microsoft's Xbox?360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 can. To make matters worse for Nintendo, both the 360 and the PS3 have had steep price cuts that make the Wii's lower price tag much less of a draw now than it was when the console was released in 2006. So could Your Shape reverse the fortunes of millions of out of shape Americans and Nintendo itself? That's an awfully heavy weight to carry. All bad puns completed intended. We'll find out November 24th. I'm Caroline McCarthy for cnet.com.