With the rise of wearable technology, we explored an opportunity to link fitness in the real world with performance in the digital world.

With the help of the 2K development team we created Boost – a first-of-its-kind integration between video games and fitness trackers that rewards users for getting active. The integration allows gamers to connect their NBA 2K accounts to Fitbit devices and for every 10,000 steps they take, their NBA 2K character gets a temporary “boost” in the game. The integration provided a way to help dispel the typical gamer stereotype by incentivizing them to live an active lifestyle through gaming rewards.

In just the first week the partnership was already proving to be a success with thousands of users connecting their Fitbit devices to the game. Fitbit deemed the integration as one of their most successful to date – in terms of active users. The integration was covered (and praised) by multiple national publications that typically don't report on video game news, such as USA Today, Sports Illustrated and Forbes. In turn, the promotion helped NBA 2K17 achieve record sales.

In an industry that is content with users spending hours sitting in front of a screen, we found a way to engage video game players and incentivize them to be more physically active.

For this integration to be successful we needed to find an authentic connection from the game to real-world fitness. In the NBA 2K video game, users create their own characters that can even take on their appearance thanks to facial recognition technology. Allowing gamers to boost their characters ability with their own fitness made perfect sense.

With all sports video games, there’s a lingering contradiction in that the games are about sports, but that the people playing video games are thought of as lazy and un-athletic.

There is an inherent tension between parents and kids — in that kids want to play all the time, and parents feel guilty letting them play at all. So, we came up with an idea that we thought would relieve some of that tension, something that would allow parents say, well, if I’m going to let my kid play a video game…a game that instills the idea that exercise actually improves your skill level….a lesson that is not only true in the game, but also in the real world, where it actually matters.