One week after EA Sports head Peter Moore said that the company will shift more of its focus to fitness video games, the publishing giant has announced an official sequel to its top-selling EA Sports Active franchise. Curiously, it will be coming out for the iPhone and Playstation 3, but not the Xbox 360.
Such an announcement is certainly no surprise. However, what is highly interesting is that EA is working on an iPhone and iPod Touch version of the upcoming fitness game. The previously-Wii-exclusive franchise is also coming to the PS3.
About a year after first launching Active, EA released a standalone expansion game called EA Sports Active: More Workouts. The franchise has been heralded as a more rigorous and results-proven physical fitness tool than Nintendo’s own Wii Fit. The first generation of Active used Nintendo’s Balance Board accessory, along with some peripherals developed in-house by EA.
The next game, however, will have leg and arm straps with built-in motion sensors, a heart rate monitor, and a centralized online hub for users to log in and track their progress. The game itself is sure to come packed with all-new mini-games for users to get their heart racing and calories burning.
EA did not expand on details for the iPhone/iPod Touch or Playstation 3 versions of the game, however the fact that the Xbox 360 has been left out of the release list speaks a lot to how EA feels about the motion-sensing capabilities of Microsoft’s platform. Last week, the head of EA Sports, Peter Moore, said that all three platforms were viable for fitness games.
EA Sports Active 2.0, which the company lists as a “working title,” will be available this fall.
