Ninendo Ring
Have a look at the trailer: Nintendo reveals flexible ring accessory for the Switch.Yup, it's a ring, all right.
A few more details:
The clip shows how the Switch’s Joy-Con controller slots into the ring, which is used to control the action on screen. There’s also a strap that lets users attach a Joy-Con to their leg and track body movements, allowing players to perform different activities including sit-ups, squats and, as the cowboy at the end demonstrates, what looks like Kegel exercises.
You can also squeeze the ring or flex it, although it's firm enough that it's not easy.
From the video, it appears that this is almost entirely a fitness device, given that there were no children in the video. Seemingly, most of the people in the video were the proper age to have had Wii's as children, which is clever marketing.
The problem, though, is that the Wii wasn't about fitness (Wii Fitness was executed very poorly). It was about Wii Sports, and that program alone kept the system sold out in the U.S. for over TWO YEARS from launch.
Even now, that's incredible.
What made Wii Sports wonderful was co-op. It was ridiculously fun to compete against each other.
The Ring video, though, doesn't show any co-op play. It shows adults sitting around watching one other adult "play" (hint: that doesn't happen in real life).
Still, I'd really enjoy a device that made working out more fun, especially something I could do at home. EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp was one of my all-time favorite workouts (when I went to the Amazon page to retrieve the link, it said at the top: "purchased 3 times." Yeah, that sounds about right).
The chances of launching big and dying quickly seem high, but I'd also be happy to be wrong.
More information coming on September 12, and I'll post an update.
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