Wii + reitirement home = Wiitirement home

34 Comments by Kyle Orland Feb 21st 2007 3:05PM
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo Wii, Sports

An entire retirement home full of elderly people passing their free time in heated Wii competitions. It may sound like a Nintendo press release, but it's actually a Chicago Tribune article about the Sedgebrook retirement home in Lincolnshire, where Wii Sports Bowling is taking the living community by storm. The game is so popular among the residents that grandparents are teaching their grandkids how to play and a 20 person tournament took place over the weekend. Sure beats watching Matlock reruns all day.

Previously: Wii appeals to the elderly

Tags: aging, bowling, elderly, old, retirement, wii, wii sports, WiiSports

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Nick: Feb 21st 2007; 3:10PM

Maybe Nintendo will start catering to this new demographic by coming out with Murder She Wrote the game.

Gerwurztraminer: Feb 21st 2007; 3:17PM

Matlock: Ace Attorney!

NintendoFanbot: Feb 21st 2007; 3:17PM

Wow, that's excellent.

If people are active more (even if just a little bit), it can be a nice benefit to a little casual gaming.

Will Wii become synonymous with warm, mushy human interest stories? We shall see. :P

PS3Crashed: Feb 21st 2007; 3:22PM

I needed this article to wake me up and save me from the dreaded keyboard printed on forehead. This is great it reminds me how my 87 yr old grandmother picked up the wiimote at xmas and threw a strike. Dope. But I really hope there isn't a followup article next week explaining how seniors are dropping off from extended Wii Sports playing.

mike: Feb 21st 2007; 3:23PM

They need to hook up 16 xbox via system link and have a blast.

but since are they are old they probably couldent handel the controller and complain about headaches like my parents

Delive: Feb 21st 2007; 3:26PM

Hmmmm, Sweaty old people.

Virtua Fanboy: Feb 21st 2007; 3:29PM

Can't wait until the first one has chest pains and goes into cardiac arrest while playing Wii Sports so they can blame video games for it. Sad, Sad world we live in. LOL

Virtua Fanboy: Feb 21st 2007; 3:30PM

But I guess I've worked in a hospital for too long.

JodyAnthony: Feb 21st 2007; 3:32PM

"Hmmmm, Sweaty old people."

More like "MMM! Sweaty old people!"

Tanster: Feb 21st 2007; 3:46PM

Cute article. Think its about time the gaming community is more inclusive.

required: Feb 21st 2007; 3:50PM

"It may sound like a Nintendo press release, but it's actually a Chicago Tribune article"

it's blatantly obvious that this is a Nintendo ad of the VNR variety

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_news_release

CowboyGA: Feb 21st 2007; 3:55PM

I love seeing these posts. Of course these are just human interest stories that have no depth - aside from giving us hope that the gaming community is extending to all demographics. However, positive gaming stories like this are helping to deter the "games = bad" fluff that seems prevelant in the media.
So, keep throwing those balls, grampa. Just know that I can SO take you in a game of Wii tennis. (don't make the controller smell like BenGay, k?)

john: Feb 21st 2007; 4:04PM

JJC should go tell them that the Wii is only for kids.

waves: Feb 21st 2007; 4:06PM

I can't wait to wiitire!

ZapDash: Feb 21st 2007; 4:06PM

Nintendo is teh oldie!

32_Footsteps: Feb 21st 2007; 4:08PM

Oh, sure, it starts on Wii Sports, but that's just a gateway to violent games like Call of Duty and Far Cry. Before you know it, we'll be teaching our seniors how to kill.

Laugh now, but when Sedgebrook takes down Shady Hills in a rain of .44 shells, you'll know who warned you.

(PS - this would be what they call "satire", since I know some people out there don't know the word. Look it up.)

otisgibbon: Feb 21st 2007; 4:14PM

Lol, I will pray to every god imaginable for a Matlock game.

3cubedminus3squared: Feb 21st 2007; 4:18PM

hmmm. So this is why I can't find a Wii yet. They're all in retirement homes...

REUYL: Feb 21st 2007; 4:20PM

WTF is a "reItirement" home?

john: Feb 21st 2007; 4:21PM

Any new info on the Bob Ross game for the Wii?

WhatIsThatThing: Feb 21st 2007; 4:21PM

What's a "reitirement" home?

ViperVisor: Feb 21st 2007; 4:23PM

wow.

That's cool

CowboyGA: Feb 21st 2007; 4:36PM

Sweet Jesus, Bob Ross Wii! There's a game I'd buy in an elderly heartbeat. I can just imagine waving the wiimote to creat "happy clouds." That's even better than Wii Special Olympics.

Mr.Wednesday: Feb 21st 2007; 4:49PM

"The game is so popular among the residents that grandparents are teaching their grandkids how to play"

Wow... I never thought I would live enough to read that frase about video-games... Its the end of times I tell ya!!!

ALH: Feb 21st 2007; 4:58PM

she is pretty thats why she is called teh rei

Cool story. my nana loves wiisports, hadnt played a game of bowling in her life before wii and she managed to get a strike and a pretty decent score first time round :)

xdrewfacex: Feb 21st 2007; 5:08PM

i work for the company that owns Sedgebrook, but at a different community in MD. (i do onsite tech support for the employees) when the onsite manager at Sedgebrook told us the community bought the residents a wii and he had to set it up and "make sure it worked," we all gave him a hard time. from what he told us, the residents play a lot of bowling, golf, and tennis, but not as much of the other two. they had a big golf tournament when they first got the system, and i'm sure they do things like that fairly often.

bgdc: Feb 21st 2007; 5:57PM

Pick up and play is the reason the Wii is a success. My old fart parents - both are over 60, play with my niece's wii every month when they visit.

The system has family appeal. Not the same can be said for the other big consoles.

Shagittarius: Feb 21st 2007; 6:54PM

Wow old people like bowling...amazing.

Next your gonna tell me that their eating oatmeal! What a world we live in!

Rocketboy: Feb 21st 2007; 7:18PM

Required.. If this is a paid news story, if the paper did not disclose that it was, they can be breaking the law...

Dan: Feb 21st 2007; 7:30PM

Wii + oldie falling down while Wii Bowling = WiiPlacement Hip

Evan: Feb 21st 2007; 9:49PM

at #8
dude, old people dont sweat

steve17: Feb 21st 2007; 11:12PM

i delivered lots of beds and firniture to retirment homes and i always feel sorry for them cause they have nothing to do. old peeps like bowling and tv so combining them is a sweet idea.

wii bowling is the shit. im honestly glad old folks can enjoy interactive entertainment like we can.

every retiremnet home should be a wiitirement home

Sly: Feb 22nd 2007; 1:38AM

There's a lot of substance here for Nintendo. Maybe add croquet, shuffle board, quilting, horseshoes, card games, a few online multi-player gameshow titles and bingo.

wiidiculous: Mar 4th 2007; 7:42PM

I thought this was a Nintendo Wii PR stunt but I found this video when I was searching for that Sedgebrook retirement community. ...it looks legit. http://www.erickson.com/ericksonvideogallery/evlPlayerver5.asp?videoname=artsCultureStreaming&var2=1

These people have a sweet set-up. I wish we could do something like this in my dorm...it blows my mind that the campus these seniors live on is way hipper than my college. We certainly don't have a Wii set-up for everyone with a lane set-up and a projection screen

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