Games + health = get rich quick.

Ever hear of the Gamers for Health organisation? To be honest I had no idea they existed until recently myself. It is an organisation founded by the Serious Games Initiative to develop a community and best practices platform for the many games being developed for health care applications. It has gathered together researchers, medical professionals and game developers who pool their resources and information about the impact that gaming has on our society and health care.

Recently they have held their fifth annual conference in Boston on June 11 and 12 and reported that health in the gaming industry was big business. When I first heard I immediately thought that they were an organisation that just gathered together to speak out about gaming and the disastrous effects it can have on the health of the average gamer, but they are quite the opposite. They embrace the world of computer games and can see the huge impact gaming has on our society, so rather than fight it they find ways to connect the world of video gaming and health with positive results.

At their conference this year they were proud to reveal that health-related games have sold over $2 billion worth of units in the last 18 months. These are games that specifically target the fitness market like the Wii Fit and EA Sports Plus and have prompted some to say that health games are probably the largest sector of activity in serious games.

Reuters reported that this year's Games for Health Conference attracted 290 game developers and investors and one director of health games research has said that these types of fitness games should be introduced to school children at a young age. Makes sense when you consider the problems that many western countries are having with obesity in children and the huge sums of money they regularly spend in trying to combat it.

The gaming and fitness industries only seem to be getting closer then ever with the upcoming release of Wii Fit Plus and My Fitness Coach: Cardio Workout.