Nintendo readies for "Wii Fit" launch

By Scott Hillis

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In Nintendo Co Ltd's (7974.OS) new "Wii Fit" video game, players use an electronic balance board to control on-screen action.

As the company prepares for the title's U.S. launch, it faces a balancing act of its own: how to appeal to new customers who don't know video game icons Mario from Master Chief without losing credibility with its traditional fans.

It's an issue Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo's U.S. operations, is mulling with just a little over 100 days on the job.

Dunaway is working on broadening a marketing push that has already seen Nintendo expand out of game stores and magazines and into mainstream retailers and media favored by potential new buyers such as women and older consumers.

"We're finding both from what's going on in Japan as well as our own research and watching consumers interact with the product, that this has a broad appeal," Dunaway said of "Wii Fit."

Fit will debut in the United States on May 19 and already has sold more than a million units in Japan.

"You'll see our marketing programs really reach out to both genders and a range of ages," Dunaway told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Game Developers Conference.

"You will definitely see a lot of experiential things for people to interact with, creative merchandising and displays in new parts of the store."

Over the past few months, Nintendo has set up Wii kiosks in shopping malls, cruise ships and even retirement centers, where the machine's unique motion-sensing controller and easy games like bowling and golf have made it an unlikely hit.

"We are trying to be as innovative in sales and marketing as we are in our products," Dunaway said.

Some fans who grew up playing Nintendo's classic Mario and Zelda franchises have voiced concern that the company's focus on games like Wii Fit may signal it is less concerned with pleasing its traditional fan base.

Dunaway said such gamers will still be drawn to the novelty and sophistication of Wii Fit and its bathroom scale-sized controller, which uses sensors to detect subtle shifts in a person's stance.

"The traditional gamers appreciate innovation and they see that 'Wii Fit' is going to reframe the way people think about fitness much the way Wii reframed way people think about gaming," Dunaway said.

Nintendo's Wii far outsold Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Xbox 360 and Sony Corp's (6758.T) PlayStation 3 last year, and it is counting on titles like Wii Fit, "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" and "Mario Kart Wii" to sustain its momentum in 2008.

(Editing by Gary Hill)