Nintendo’s Wii Vitality Sensor: Vaporware?
By Jared Newman | Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Okay, so it’s becoming clear that Nintendo doesn’t know exactly what to do with the Wii Vitality Sensor. The gadget, which supposedly measures pulse and other vitals from a player’s finger, was briefly introduced at E3 to a curious, if not bewildered press. Two months later, Nintendo brainchild Shigeru Miyamoto still won’t say how, exactly, the peripheral will be used.
“Ideally we would have been able to talk about this in terms of the software implementation rather than just the sensor itself,” Miyamoto told Mercury News. “I don’t have any indication for you (of what we have in the works) other than to say that we have lots of very creative ideas.”
Ars Technica’s Ben Kuchera calls the sensor’s unveiling a misstep, because Nintendo failed to furnish any software that makes the hardware seem irresistible. I’ll take this a step further and say the Wii Vitality Sensor is headed towards Nintendo’s small but historically significant pile of video gaming vaporware.
The most notable of these half-baked failures is the Nintendo 64DD. This hardware expansion had considerable clout among my neighborhood friends, promising what seemed like infinite gaming muscle and endless possibilities. We read about it in Nintendo Power, waiting for a North American release that never came. Long after we had forgotten it, the Nintendo 64DD was released mainly as a subscription service in Japan, where it flopped.
There are other examples, like the Sony-developed SNES CD that ultimately evolved into the Playstation, along with “Project Atlantis,” a powerful successor to the Game Boy that was never officially confirmed, though it surfaced from obscurity this year. Though not exactly vaporware, there was also an unnamed, unexplained Nintendo handheld that was completed a few years ago and then scrapped.
It’s said that when Nintendo shelves an idea, the company tends to recycle it into future projects. This happened with a touch screen peripheral for the Game Boy Advance that eventually became the Nintendo DS, and I can see it happening again with the Wii Vitality Sensor. It’s not a flat-out bad idea, but it’ll have a tough time standing on its own. If we ever start hearing about the sensor in any significant detail, I’m guessing it will have already morphed into a different product altogether.
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August 17th, 2009 at 7:00 pm[…] an actual correlation between gaming and negative health consequences. That said, more games that require physical involvement couldn’t come soon […]
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June 15th, 2010 at 3:22 pm[…] about the Wii Vitality Sensor, which they introduced at least year’s E3 press conference. Vaporware after all? Comments are closed tweetmeme_style = 'compact'; tweetmeme_url = […]
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Nintendo Plunders the Classics, Pleases the Crowd « Claire191's Blog Says:
June 16th, 2010 at 8:00 pm[…] One final thought: Nintendo said nothing about the Wii Vitality Sensor, which they introduced at least year’s E3 press conference. Vaporware after all? […]
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April 25th, 2011 at 1:36 pm[…] Nintendo shifting focus to a new console, can we all finally declare that the Wii Vitality Sensor was vaporware? Comments are closed Tweet Read more: E3, Gaming, Nintendo You might also […]
August 4th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Do you really consider the Nintendo 64DD to be vaporware? As you point out in the write-up, the N64DD did indeed come out. It may have only come out in Japan, but at least it came out. The Super NES CD-ROM, on the other hand, was announced at a time to blunt the impact of the just-released Sega CD. While the technology would eventually turn into different game systems (the CD-i and the PlayStation), the Super NES CD-ROM was never released. That is Vaporware. The Nintendo 64DD was just a failure.
August 4th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
@Cyril
I do, in the sense that by the time it was released in 1999, no one cared anymore, and it was a different product (mostly subscription-based) than originally announced. The N64DD as we knew it was vaporware, even if some form of it was eventually released in Japan.
August 4th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I think that it may come down to how we define Vaporware. I was at the C.E.S. when Nintendo announced their Super NES CD-ROM, and it seemed pretty clear that they were only announcing it to blunt the excitement for the Sega CD. I have always taken the meaning to be somewhat deceptive. Where somebody announces something to stop momentum going in their competitor’s favor. I didn’t see that happen with the Nintendo 64DD. The fact that I can buy an N64DD sets it apart from the Super NES CD-ROM or even the Sega Genesis VR headset (which I tried and hated). It may just come down to how we choose to define what Vaporware really is.
August 4th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Jeez, what is it with tech blogs and this vaporware bandwagon about the Vitality Sensor? Can’t we just wait until the damn thing comes out? Is everyone ready to eat crow if Nintendo finds a hook for the VS?
November 7th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
i wish nintendo would make more wii games that use the wii camera, wii speak, & wii vitality sensor all at the same time or just by themselfs.
November 7th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Make a wii health program game disc to make your wii your owm wii health game doctor with a purple color light letting you know it is in health mode, where you use the wii vitality sensor to check all vital signs & you can use it to help you fall asleep. What i mean is use your wii vitality sensor to sense when you first go to sleep, how long it takes to get totally asleep, & how long you slept.
November 7th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Make a wii health program game disc to make your wii your own wii health game doctor with a purple color light letting you know it is in health mode, where you use the wii vitality sensor to check all vital signs & you can use it to help you fall asleep. What i mean is use your wii vitality sensor to sense when you first go to sleep, how long it takes to get totally asleep, & how long you slept.