Thanks to the success of games such as Wii Fit, EA Sports Active and Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009, the medical community is starting to take games seriously as a means to pump you up keep us healthy. Reuters reports that at this year's fifth annual Games for Health Conference in Boston, a bolstered attendance brought health experts together to talk about these games, and you'd be surprised how much money these titles generated last year.

"Healthcare is 18 percent of the GDP of the United States and so games for health is probably the largest sector of activity in the serious games field long-term," said Ben Sawyer, a co-founder of The Games for Health Project. He added, "If you add up the 18 month sales of Wii Fit and the sales of EA Sports Active, Konami's Dance Dance Revolution and other healthy games, the worldwide retail numbers are over $2 billion." That's not a bad slice of the $22 billion pie that gaming lovingly prepared last year, if we may say so.

Some experts think the government should look into offering these types of games in schools to help kids learn the importance of exercise, while others think that a public service campaign should be started and backed by the president, Congress, and other federal agencies. We'd comment, but we really only play Wii Fit for the hulahoop game.

EA Sports was very happy to announce today that it's Wii fitness bundle EA Sports Active had a tremendously successful start, selling over 600,000 copies since its May 19 release. In case you were wondering why EA was so quick to put out an expansion, yeah, that's why. It's not like the company desperately wants you to lose those love handles, you know.

Apparently, Mrs. Michaels' last Ultimatum wasn't ultimate enough -- a recent Majesco press release dropped an announcement that the Biggest Loser star would be featured in two new games this year: Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2010 and Jillian Michaels' Pocket Trainer 2010. Man, we don't want to be rude or anything, but this couldn't have come at a better time. Our pockets have seriously let themselves go.

Both games are set to drop this fall, and will likely each be purchased 500,000 times.

While Wii Fit never really felt like it could replace the gym experience entirely, EA Sports Active actually does feel like it offers an approximation -- and they did it simply by including a piece of rubber. Amazing, right? We took the new personal trainer for a spin yesterday, and while we don't know if this will give us a Charles Atlas body right away, it definitely felt like a substantial workout.

Go on, "break" a sweat in our review ... behind the break. Sadly, bad puns do not burn any calories whatsoever.

EA Sports president Peter Moore spoke to VG247 about the state of the economy, offering careful statements about layoffs, sequelitis, and PC releases of sports franchises. But of everything happening at EA Sports, Moore had the most to say about the upcoming Wii exercise program, EA Sports Active.

"I call it a platform," Moore said. "Yes, it's a game, but it's bigger than a game, bigger than a franchise, bigger than a product. It's a true platform that we can sell expansion packs, sell more peripherals, ultimately get some download on there." Interesting choice of words, considering that EA Sports Active's biggest competitor is literally a platform.

Moore said that he hopes to add biometric data soon. "If I can do that, if I can get your heart-rate on the screen, I mean then I can really drive towards what my vision of this product ultimately can be."

Active and other exergames like it, according to Moore, can help EA and the game industry in general deal with "the most vitriolic press," including the Daily Mail, who frequently "blame [videogames] for pestilence, the plague, everything, and I think it's good that we have things to point to that say, 'This is getting you off the couch' and provide a little bit of balance."

When we think of exercise and gaming (exergaming), we think Wii Fit, much like most of you, we imagine. Thankfully, a trio of gents have come up with a more inspired way to get your sweat on: Space Invaders. As their final EE316 (Computer Engineering) project, Matt, Doug, and Allen combined a Bluetooth heart rate sensor with an Axis network camera (and some code) to make one of the best ways to get your heart pumping this side of running from the police. Check out video of it in action in the source link below.

[Via Engadget]

You've already seen what comes in the box, now watch what the Balance Board adds to EA Sports Active. Using the fitness-focused peripheral, players can lunge to hit tennis balls, skate on one foot and dance the night away, all in the name of exergaming. Of course, use of the peripheral is optional but this trailer recommends adding it to your daily routine and the game's 30 Day Challenge (aka, the Career Mode) to "broaden" Active's variety.

To recap: EA Sports Active makes use of a leg strap, resistance band, the Wii-mote, nunchuck and (optional) Balance Board. We presume EA is looking to break some kind of Guinness World Record for most peripherals used by a player, at once. We can't wait for Active's next add-on to be revealed -- a spandex leotard that measures the player's heart rate and reduces their self-respect.

Some New York city schools are testing a new program for physical education, one that utilizes Nintendo's popular Wii Fit package. Trading in dodge balls for Balance Boards, several different schools received free bundles from Nintendo, but Lori Rose Benson, head of the Department of Education's Office of Fitness and Health Education, admits she wasn't on board at first. It didn't take her long to get with the program, however, as she realized that "students learn in lots of different ways and that we can engage students in physical activity through gaming and through interactive techniques," which is really what's important. Well, that and making sure you block all of those soccer balls.

Peripheral gaming is in. Exergaming is in. So, EA Sports Active really should rake in the bucks. It'll support (but won't require) the Wii Fit balance board and to make the package even more attractive, it'll include two peripherals in the box. The leg strap (after the cut) will allow you to attach the Wii Remote to your leg. The game will then keep track of your movement, allowing you to run and jump without feeling too tethered down by a physical object.

The resistance band (above) will allow you to do other exercises that work out the upper body -- a rarity in the Wii exercise genre. These two peripherals are small, and really do allow for some freeform movement. Will you be picking them up?

Heath Bell, pitcher for the San Diego Padres, needed to lose weight before the new season. To achieve his goal, he turned to an innovative home-based training program that makes virtual trainers available at all times -- otherwise known as Wii Fit. Bell credited time spent with his children, playing the Balance Board-equipped exergame, with the 25-pound weight loss he accomplished before returning to training camp.

"It said I was obese," said the professional athlete (seen here judging a cookie contest). "If you're obese, it makes [your character on the screen] obese. I was disappointed that I was that big."

While we're happy to see Wii Fit getting some good press (it's a bit of an underdog, and could use the push!), we can't help but wonder if there might have been some kind of outdoor activity that Bell could have used to lose weight. There's bound to be some kind of sport he would like, right? Like cricket or kickball. Something like that.

[Thanks, Joaquin A!]

At least, that's the thinking we imagine went on in the meeting when the concept of the riiflex was developed. And they surely don't get in the way of the buttons, as these 2- and 5-pound attachments promise "access to all Wii Remote functions." Well then, sign us up! While we're cutting down enemies in Santa Destroy, we can get totally ripped.

Then there's the danger of adding pounds to your Wiimote. You know how there's always that person that gets a little too into bowling in Wii Sports? With this they're likely to throw a Wiimote through your TV, past the wall, and right into the neighbor's nice new car. Don't say we didn't warn you.

[Via Engadget]

If you're going to try to sell a fitness item to people, you might as well use the marketing methods employed by other fitness items. At least, that's the philosophy seemingly behind this new trailer for EA Sports Active, which would be right at home in the late-night Paid Programming television block.

Bob Greene, whom you might know from his work with Oprah, demonstrates the fitness title in much the same way as we could imagine, say, Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley, or Fitness Celebrity John Basedow doing. Except, rather than the spaces between segments of HGTV shows, these trailers are going to end up being shown mostly on gaming websites like this one, to people who probably wouldn't be receptive of the advertising even if we did like the game (which we kind of do!)

We've all likely been accosted by a Gamestop employee, at one time or another, about a subscription to Game Informer or a strategy guide to go along with the title we were planning to pick up or something. Well, it would seem that Gamestop is perfecting their craft, targeting folks with a need for exergaming with subscriptions to mags such as Cosmo and Redbook.

Unlike other solicitations from the retail giant, this is actually free, though, which is a big improvement for them. Upon purchasing select exergaming items of $35 or more (semi-full list of qualifying items can be found past the break), Gamestop will toss in a 12-month subscription to either Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Redbook, Good Housekeeping or O Magazine. Head past the break for the products that were mentioned to be part of this promotion.

You can file this one in the "almost too good to be true" pile -- in fact, while you read this post, we advise repeatedly pinching yourself. If you're a Brit searching for a copy of Wii Fit in time for Christmas, you'll already know that nowhere has it. As we see it, you have three options:

• You can buy your loved ones something that isn't Wii Fit and ruin Christmas for everybody like a big jerk.
• You can fork out obscene amounts of cash for a copy from some eBay scalper who bought the last 25 units at GameStation in November.
  
• You can visit BuyItPlayIt this Friday and press F5 a lot. The site has a big old pile of Wii Fits that will be on sale from 1:00pm GMT, with the first fifty going for the unbelievable price of £50 (in probably less than fifty seconds). That's £20 lower than the standard price. We are quite certain that the site could charge twice that and clear its inventory in minutes, but there you go.
  

We've never used BuyItPlayIt ourselves, incidentally, so can't pass comment on its standard of service. Have any readers shopped there before?


[Via press release]

Not many games become diamond-sellers -- that is, pass one million sales -- in the United Kingdom. According to ELSPA, only nine titles have managed the feat since it started recording sales in 1999. As of today, a further two have joined that elite group, and both are close to our hearts: Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit.

They've taken their sweet time getting there, however. Fellow diamond-seller Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas took just three weeks to break the seven-figure landmark in Britain, while Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit took 32 and 30 weeks, respectively. On the other hand, there's no doubt that both epitomize the "evergreen" appeal of popular Wii titles -- whereas games like San Andreas had a very explosive start and then faded, the Nintendo pair are still in the top five in the latest UK charts.

Hit the break for the full list of titles that broke the magic one meeeellion mark.