On November 1, Nintendo will jump back into the fitness gaming category it helped create with Wii Fit U. Later this year, Microsoft will be throwing its hat into the ring with a similar app for Xbox One.
On Friday, Microsoft announced a new Xbox One app called Xbox Fitness that will be launching this holiday season. Unlike Nintendo’s game that utilizes a virtual trainer and the Wii balance board, Xbox Fitness will use real trainers alongside Kinect to help people get into shape.
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“What makes Xbox Fitness so innovative is the feedback it gives you,” says Insanity’s Shaun T. “The Kinect sensor can evaluate your form, tell how high you’re jumping, how hard you’re punching and even read your heart rate. It’s that little missing piece of validation that hasn’t been possible for home fitness products before. Xbox Fitness completes the puzzle.”
Alongside its exercise programs, Xbox Fitness acts as a personal trainer. It will create personalized workout programs for each user based on their history and past performance. It will also accommodate any schedule with workouts that last anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes.
Xbox Fitness will also include Xbox Live integration in the form of online challenges, leaderboards and other methods for you to compare your performance with that of your friends.
Speaking of Xbox Live, Xbox Fitness will be free to all Xbox Live Gold members until December 2014. Microsoft doesn’t explicitly say it will start charging separately for the service at that point, but it’s heavily implied. That means you’ll want to take full advantage of Xbox Fitness when it launches this holiday season.
[Image: xbox/YouTube]