Nintendo Reveals Vitality Sensor Accessory Is Still “Pending”

Back in 2009, Nintendo announced the Vitality Sensor which would be one of the accessories for the Wii. However in 2011 the sensor was still nowhere to be seen and now thanks to a Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, it looks like the sensor could be in limbo for the foreseeable future. During Nintendo’s investor Q&A session, Iwata was asked about the device and his response was that the product was still a “pending” product simply because Nintendo has yet to figure out a way to get the sensor to work the way they had intended it to.

For those wondering about the sensor, this was an accessory announced for the Wii that basically allowed the system to measure the player’s pulse and autonomic nerve functions via the gamer’s fingertip. Such an accessory would definitely have opened up many doors in terms of unique games but according to Iwata, “After a large-scale test of a prototype inside the company, we found out that for some people the sensor did not work as expected […] We wondered if we should commercialize a product which works as expected for 90 people out of 100, but not so for the other 10 people.

The accessory has by no means been shelved or cancelled, but rather waiting for a time when technology permits it to have a success rate of at least 999 out of 1,000, rather than 90 out of 100. We’re sure developers and gamers are disappointed, but at the very least we can appreciate Nintendo’s dedication to not release subpar products which would have most definitely hurt their reputation.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: Nintendo, wii