Tonight at a press conference THQ and Adidas revealed a new interactive athletic training program for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 called miCoach.
The title brings together training programs developed for sports like basketball, soccer, football, tennis and running with sports stars from each sport. Dwight Howard, Kaka, Tyson Gay, Jessica Ennis, Ana Ivanovic and Eric Berry have all signed on to appear in the fitness title as trainers.
miCoach lets players choose their fitness goals and then takes over to coach them through every step. Players are displayed inside the game via the camera on either Microsoft’s Kinect sensor or Sony’s PlayStation Move camera. Sports stars exercise alongside the player, while the game keeps track of progress, counts reps and more.
THQ says that both proper training programs and motivation were goals in the development of this game. Players that have Adidas miCoach heart rate montiors will also get real-time feedback on their in-game performance. Beyond this, the miCoach mobile app will synchronize with the game to factor in data gathered away from the living room.
Orlando Magic basketball player Dwight Howard was at the event to promote the title. Howard and other sports stars were captured in hundreds of hours of video to appear in the game. Speaking on his recording session a few weeks back, Howard said, “When I finished I had to get like a three-hour massage. I was hurting.”
In a demonstration using Kinect, we saw that the player will appear on-screen alongside the actual coaching athlete. The game’s technology pulls out the background, leaving only the player, making for a seamless presentation. Meters showing reps, heart rate and and other stats floated over the player’s head. The scene would switch dynamically between a wide shot showing both player and athlete and a closer, more detailed shot on the athlete. We saw push-ups with arm lifts, crunches and curls with weights in this demonstration.
THQ’s miCoach will be released in early 2012.
