Nintendo cuts profit forecast by 33 per cent

Nintendo is poised to launch a service that will allow Japanese health professionals and medical insurance companies to “prescribe” the Wii Fit exercise game to patients suffering from weight problems.

When the Wii Fit Karada Check Channel is up and running, doctors will be able to remotely monitor the progress of weight-loss exercise regimes by people using the Wii, and send advice to patients on how much more time they need to spend on the machine in the quest for better health.

The potentially controversial scheme comes into effect from April and hits a Japanese market where an estimated 3 million Wii Fit software and hardware packages have been sold.

The idea of using the Wii as a conduit for medical data and health advice has garnered support from leading companies in Japan, and marks yet another attempt by Nintendo to work its popular Wii video games console into more aspects of home and family life.

The company recently said that it would begin broadcasting its TV channel with cartoons and cooking shows through the Wii – a move that has terrified mainstream Japanese television stations which have seen prime-time viewer numbers tumble because of competition with Nintendo’s deliberately family-oriented machine. Nintendo is also working with teachers in the United States on ways to push the Wii Music game into school classrooms.

The new medical angle arises from the popularity of the Wii Fit software – a game that encourages users to exercise by cajoling them through a series of exertions in front of the television. The software requires a motion-sensitive pad, which registers the movement of the person standing on it, as well as their weight and body mass index. The existing game records all the data it generates on the Wii itself and gives users a daily reckoning of their progress in the exercise regime.

But Nintendo’s new twist is that the medical data collected by the Wii Fit sensor in the home can be transmitted over the internet directly to the desk of the user’s doctor, company medical scheme or other health professional. Patients using the service and judged to be suffering from what the Japanese call “metabo syndrome” – mild obesity – could then find themselves emailed by their doctor and ordered to spend more hours sweating it out on the Wii.

The health business operations of NEC, Panasonic Medical Solutions and Hitachi are reconfiguring their data systems so that doctors and dieticians will be ready to receive and process the expected flood of data emanating from the Wiis. Those companies are expected to sell their updated systems to other corporate health insurance groups and health advisory services around the country, drawing more companies into the scheme.

NEC plans to combine Nintendo’s WiiFit Karada Check Channel with its existing health service advisory programmes. Panasonic plans to start selling a dedicated “health guidance system”, known as Plissimo Sigussa that will incorporate the Nintendo software and be sold on to health insurance unions. Hitachi’s scheme will use the Wii online channel to deliver health advice directly to any households that are signed up.

Mia Nagasaka, a games sector analyst at Barclays Capital, said that the new scheme was unlikely to have much short-term impact on Nintendo’s earnings, but provided yet more evidence of Nintendo’s efforts to expand its horizons beyond games and could lengthen the business cycle for the Wii console beyond what might be considered its natural life.

Times Recommends

• ‘Lame duck’ fear for FSA as chief quits
• Storm over bailout of EU's most ailing economy
• Northern Rock to drop 100% savings guarantee