Did the Quality of Life Platform Become Labo?

The following was originally posted on tumblr back in September 2018, but with the recent reveal of Pokémon Sleep, and its resemblance to Nintendo's previously abandoned "Vitality Sensor," it's worth reposting here as we believe the QOL's influence is still being felt in both direct and indirect ways.

Original text:

Way back in 2014, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata announced that his company was developing a new platform of products called “Quality of Life.” It was supposed to roll out in 2015 but never really did.

Details were always sparse but the gist of it seemed to be that Nintendo would release technology designed with the health of the user in mind. They threw the word “non-wearable” around a lot, clarifying that it was not a new console or handheld. The examples cited by Iwata as to what kind of products would be offered were actually older games Nintendo already released, like Wii Fit and Brain Age, software designed to improve the user in some way.

As mentioned it never really happened. Earlier this year Nintendo confirmed that the QOL initiative was officially dropped, which may have caused a slight downward tic in their stock. Who knew that shareholders were so keen on QOL?

Interestingly though it should be asked whether it was fully dropped or if at least some of the ideas became Nintendo Labo.

It fits the MO. Labo is based around encouraging creativity and development of young users, relies on non-wearable tech and, like Wii Fit before it, feeds into Nintendo’s primary business as a console maker by creating gamers out of demographics that weren’t gamers before.

The second Labo kit, the Robot Kit, was clearly a rework of Shigeru Miyamoto’s supposedly canceled Project Giant Robot. It would make sense that the supposedly canceled Quality of Life also resulted in something the Big N released.

Given how few details Nintendo ever released about QOL in the first place, and how little they ever reveal about their development cycles when they don’t have to (recall that the public didn’t know that Labo itself existed until only a couple months prior to release), we probably won’t get a direct answer on whether QOL became Labo or spurred its creation in any way.

But it’s something to think about.