Nintendo, a company known for keeping blurry-eyed kids awake until the wee hours of the morning, is now developing a product to monitor and improve people’s sleep schedule.
In a recent corporate manager policy briefing posted on Nintendo’s website, company representatives stated that Nintendo is “…aiming to broaden the scope of its business fields by redefining entertainment as something that ‘improves people’s QOL or Quality of Life in enjoyable ways.’”
Nintendo will supplement its catalog of video games and video game related products with products to improve consumers’ quality of life.
It is without doubt that developing this new line of products is in response to the failing sales of Nintendo’s other products. The company lost money in 2011, 2012 and 2013 from the Wii U lacking in sales, trailing behind the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The first of these quality of life products made by Nintendo is a sleep sensor produced in partnership with Resmed, a medical company that specializes in sleep disorders. The goal is to help decrease fatigue and increase the overall quality of sleep.
This device is designed to be set on a person’s bedside table while they sleep. It will emit radio waves that tracks movement patterns, breathing and heartbeats. The data is sent to Nintendo to be analyzed by computers. The analysis is then sent back to the sleep monitor, which then gives advice on how to improve the person’s sleeping habits.
Although this product does not yet have a name, it is set to be released by March 2016.
Thus far, the sleep monitor is the only quality of life product to be announced. It will be interesting to see if new products will cross over to Nintendo’s video game brand. Perhaps a Mario personal trainer, or a Toad GPS system could be in the works: “I’m sorry, but your destination is a different castle.”
Hopefully this won’t mean the end of Nintendo as a video game company, but it is entirely possible that the company could stop producing new consoles, especially considering the Wii U’s sales figures.
For now, pop in your copy of “Ocarina of Time” and don’t worry if you’re up playing until 5 a.m.; Nintendo can help with your sleep later.
