Today’s Nintendo press conference with the American Heart Association seemed like the perfect place to detail the Vitality Sensor, but no such luck. Instead, the event outlined a new endorsement deal between the AHA and Nintendo. The partnership has already set up a site called Active Play Now, which encourages physical activity like playing with the Nintendo Wii or taking heart walks as part of a healthy lifestyle. As a result of the deal, the AHA logo will appear on Nintendo Wii packaging, and Nintendo will appear as a sponsor at the AHA “Start! Heart Walk” events. Both are also sponsoring a research summit to study the “synergies and benefits of active-play video games.”

“Our two organizations come from different worlds, but we share a common goal,” said AHA president Dr. Clyde Yancy in the press release. “Showing people accessible ways to stay active has been a part of our mission for decades, but our research tells us nearly 70 percent of Americans are getting no regular physical activity. As an organization we are looking for ways to change this. Nintendo has demonstrated clear leadership in active-play video games with the popularity of the Nintendo Wii system, and I’m confident that together we can encourage Americans to become more physically active.”

“We can ignore the audience that is engaged with gaming — a huge audience — or we can find different ways of engaging that audience,” said Yancy in an interview with ABC News. “Certainly there are games within the Nintendo portfolio that are more sedentary, but to their credit they’ve pioneered physically active gaming.” Yancy defended the organization’s lack of partnerships with sports equipment companies, saying they have a “very deliberate process” for endorsements.

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