The Beeb reports that after a successful pilot program, the state of West Virginia is going to put Dance Dance Revolution in all its schools.
The state is currently in the top three for obesity and ranks fourth for diabetes, so anything that gets its kids moving is good news.
It’s no big surprise that Konami is kicking in some of the money. As far as I can tell, DDR has done spectacularly well by a kind of Green-Eggs-and-Ham evangelism, catching on because fanatics convince their sceptical friends to try it, and then the friends like it. With this program, which will give an Xbox and two dance pads to each school, kids will get to try the game out, but the limited number of consoles and pads will mean that the demand for DDR time will generally exceed the supply. Of course, kids can fix that problem by buying their own Xboxes and copies of Dance Dance Revolution.
One question, though: what happens when the pads wear out, as they seem to inevitably, especially with heavy use? Schools are famously low on disposable income, so shelling out $40 for new pads every few weeks is going to be a dicey proposition. Presumably this was worked out with the pilot program. If it wasn’t, then the whole thing might last no longer than the back button on a DDR pad. Which isn’t long.