Video game lovers are being coaxed off couches as the industry sprints ahead with a trend toward fitness titles and motion-sensing controllers.
The premier Electronic Entertainment Expo that wrapped in Los Angeles Thursday was rife with exercise, sports, and dance video games that people play by moving their bodies instead of just their thumbs.
"A really exciting trend is publishers getting people off the couch and moving," said Scott Steinberg of video game and gadget Web site Digital Trends.
"Video gaming doesn't always add pounds. It can burn calories instead."
Analysts credit Nintendo with revolutionizing the way videogames are played with the release in 2006 of Wii consoles with motion-sensing controllers.
Traditional controllers on consoles such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 feature toggles and buttons players manipulate to dictate characters' actions.
About a year ago, Nintendo introduced a "Wii Fit" exercise game with a controller shaped like a bathroom scale that senses the weight, balance, and shift of pressure players make.
The game has become a top seller worldwide, according to Nintendo.
Other video game makers, including U.S. titan Electronic Arts and France-based Ubisoft, have crafted workout titles of their own for Wii consoles, and Nintendo soon will release an enhanced "Wii Fit Plus" video game.
Video game software lets players act out soccer, tennis, basketball, canoeing, and other sports. Such games let people try risky new endeavors without having to face the consequences common to learning, or failing at, such activities, said Michael Cai, video game research vice president at Interpret.
"Fitness can be designed for a lot of active games," Cai said. "The only concern is whether, like health club memberships or treadmills, people will buy them and forget about them."
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