In an in-depth interview covering the continuing responsibilities of his division, EA Sports president Peter Moore confirms they're not about to let up on EA Sports Active for the Wii. The exergaming software/hardware bundle, created in response to the success of Nintendo's Wii Fit, proved to be the publisher's biggest Wii launch yet. Moore notes the approach the publisher intends to take to keep EA Sports Active relevant to its target market will likely be quite different than the annual retail game releases that EA Sports is known for. Speaking to Gamasutra:

"...think of it more like Rock Band, updating software. You've got stuff, you've got a core pack. Once you've got your resistance strap and your leg strap and your resistance band, then what innovative new exercises can I provide you?

"Are there new peripherals that might be cool, that we could do? All that stuff. The team's thinking all of that through. We're excited right now that we've got a three-year plan that will take us through this, so we're good to go."

Moore stresses EA did its homework to ensure EA Sports Active delivered the goods for the exergaming nuts. As Wii Fit has shown, this market is outside of the traditional "core" gaming demographics, and Moore is well aware of the difficulties Wii software still faces when being judged by game publications and sites. While acknowledging that releasing poor quality software certainly wouldn't do Nintendo's platform any favors, he muses that aggregrate scores from sites like Metacritic will be less critical to the success of software for the Wii compared to competing home platforms.

Moore also expresses excitement for Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's own motion control offerings, though he acknowledges that it will be a challenge to accomodate for gestures without an actual controller, especially one designed from the ground-up for motion control like the Wiimote.

In related EA Sports Active news, Moore has challenged US president Barack Obama to give their exergaming package a spin in an effort to prove that gaming isn't all about sitting on the couch and button-mashing.  President Obama beat a dead horse late last week when he explained to the American Medical Association that he hoped more youngsters would adopt an active lifestyle instead of staying indoors playing video games all day.  We wouldn't say the gaming industry was recoiling in sheer shock and disbelief from his comments, but we can imagine a few figures were disappointed with this Obama's enforcement of underachieving gamer stereotypes no less than three times over the course of ten days.