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Nintendo previously announced a new health-based platform back in 2014 as part of a new “Quality of Life” pillar for the company, but its future is now uncertain.
According to the Japanese newspaper, Asahi, this platform may be either be abandoned or, at the very least, no longer a priority for Nintendo. The paper reports that Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima told investors regarding the device:
“It’s not yet at the level of a Nintendo product. If we can release it, we’ll release it. If we can’t, then we’ll examine things further.”
As part of this platform, Nintendo had previously announced that it was developing a sleep sensor that could monitor people’s lifestyles and analyze data, helping people to exercise and eat right.
The Asahi newspaper was in fact originally one of the first outlets that reported on the sleep sensor, featuring an interview with the late former president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata. At the time, Mr. Iwata had promoted the quality of life initiative as a key pillar for the company.
While any such plans may disappoint some fans who were looking forward to seeing what Nintendo was working on, it hasn’t come as too much of a surprise. Indeed, analysts predicted as far back as August of last year that Nintendo was shifting its focus away form this area.
Will you be losing sleep over the loss of Nintendo’s sleep monitor? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Kotaku
Nope, won’t be losing sleep over something as useless as this. I’m losing sleep over Nintendo’s apparent lack of focus on MAKING GAMES PEOPLE WANT. Or any great games at all lately. What was the last great Wii title? Xenoblade X, maybe. Some would say Mario Maker, but that really isn’t a “game” in the truest sense of the word. I would rather have a new Mario title, 2D or 3D. Mario Maker is great, but honestly I don’t really enjoy making levels. I have a better time seeing what other people have created and playing those.
Xenoblade came out in December, and this is typically the driest part of the year, game wise. And it looks like there’s some very good stuff coming this year!
As for this, I was intrigued. I tend to trust Nintendo on stuff like this, because they have a pretty good track record of giving the fans stuff they didn’t know they wanted. Look at the Wii! Or the DS! Not everything pans out (look at the death of the Vitality Sensor, which looked promising to me!), but Nintendo is always trying to innovate, and I for one appreciate that!
I too was intrigued and will be disappointed if we never find out what the “quality of life pillar” was all about. Maybe unseen64 will give us the scoop four of five years from now…
Couldn’t agree more with Marc’s point about good stuff coming this year. With pretty solid lineups for Wii U/3DS and the dam about to burst with NX information, it certainly is an exciting time to be a Nintendo fan!