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Video Games are a major part of day-to-day activity for the youth today, and the Navy is facing the challenge head on. The Navy Times today reports that equivalent versions of Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution could be used to help get recruits in shape quicker.

[Update: Nintendo of America told us that they're not working with the U.S. military in any official capacity. "Nintendo isn't working with the Navy or any of the Armed Forces to insert Wii products into their basic training camps," said a spokesperson.]

Navy Surgeon General Vice Admiral Adam Robinson states that using such games could help new sailors build better endurance and get them in shape more quickly.

“There are lots of programs now that people can [use to] become very physically active while they’re using interactive computer games,” Robinson said May 18 in an interview with Navy Times reporters and editors. “So, in other words, this isn’t about [starting] with computers and stopping [everything else] — because we’re not going to do that. This is about incorporating those types of activities into something that people can use to become more physically active.”

The Navy is looking into using computer-fitness aids due to the increased health problems inherent with recruits and sedentary lifestyles. Adm. Robinson noted that it takes more time to get sailors into fighting shape than in the past years. “I have no doubt that today’s youth and the people that we’re talking about are capable of becoming physically fit,” Robinson said. “But I think that there has been a definite difference in the amount of time that people have devoted to physical activity, and I think that is a manifestation of physical education in the school systems in America.”

“There is an issue in terms of physical fitness,” he said. “There have been more fractures and femur fractures and long-bone fractures in some of our young female recruits, and that’s related to the amount of activity and a sedentary lifestyle that they’ve had before they’ve entered the service and then the uptick in physical activity after they’re in the service.”

The Admiral did state that this solution is in early and conceptualization stages, and the retail versions of the games would certainly be tailored to the Navy’s purposes.

Video games and the military are nothing new, as all branches have used video games in some form or fashion to the public’s knowledge. The United States Air Force recently utilized the PlayStation 3 as a super computer for various research opportunities.

As for the U.S. Navy adding video games to their repertoire of fitness regimes? The Marines are probably having a real good laugh right now.

IndustryGamers was the first to bring you the news that Electronic Arts would be shelling out the big bucks to secure a TV spot during the Super Bowl. The 30-second advertisement likely cost EA in the range of $3 million, which is an awful lot of dough to spend on just one component of a video game marketing campaign. We have to wonder if it was worth the investment for the publisher. Thankfully our friends at the[a]listdaily got an answer straight from the horse’s mouth.

Phil Marineau, Sr. Product Manager for Dante’s Inferno, explained that the Super Bowl ad generated enough buzz that it was worth every penny. When you’re trying to get attention for a brand-new IP in a crowded market, standing out can be difficult. “From the marketing standpoint, we couldn’t be more pleased,” Marineau said of the Super Bowl spot. “With Dante’s we’ve tried to have big ideas the whole time and that came up with this; we could buy a whole bunch of cable spots or we could go after the large reach, the large audience. We knew we had to leverage it as much as possible and we told management how we were going to do it. We got lucky; it was the third most watched spot of the Super Bowl. People, WSJ put it in the top five, Wired put it number one. Our Google searches were through the roof. So the Super Bowl spot worked well for us.”

Check out the full interview with Marineau for much more on the wide-ranging campaign that EA put together for Dante’s.

Video Game Store Franchise

Activision social media manager Dan Amrich, who revealed some information about Infinity Ward bonuses today, has also commented about the recent Stimulus Pack DLC for Modern Warfare 2. The $15 price point for the additional map packs caused a minor uproar in the gaming community, but nearly 25% of Modern Warfare 2 owners still purchased the new content – 2.5 million copies were sold in the first week. Even with the sales success, Amrich believes Activision should have sold the DLC at a lower price.

“I think the $15 price point for MW2 DLC was a mistake,” he said candidly, “and as soon as I had the opportunity I said so, even came up with some alternate suggestions (‘how about $10 for three maps and the two remakes as freebies to thank everybody?’) — but by the time I was made aware, it was too late, and people weren’t really asking me that kind of stuff anyway. Plus, the price clearly was a success so it’s hard to gain traction when they’re looking at a bottom line and going ‘Hey, turns out people felt this content was worth it.’”

Indeed, if people plunk down the cash, Activision and other publishers may consider higher priced DLC content for high-profile games going forward. As EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich wrote in a recent IndustryGamers column, “Am I happy with Activison’s actions? As an economist, yes, since someone needed to test the boundaries on DLC pricing. DLC is a new market opportunity for publishers, and it is because of the intrepid actions of Activision that we now have a few more answers.”