A YouTube video depicts the oddly titled video game "The Northern Wind, the Sun and Me," in which male gamers controle a character on a console with their urine. (YouTube)
TOKYO – Japanese video game developer Sega hopes to make a splash with a new console that allows men to play games while using urinals.
The Sega "Toylet" features a screen mounted above a urinal wall that is equipped with pressure sensors. The unit's five games are controlled by the pressure the user imparts on the urinal, The (London) Daily Telegraph reported Thursday. ITN said hundreds have already been sold to restaurants and pubs throughout Japan.
The console's lead producer Hirotaka Machida said, "One of our planners wondered whether we could turn urine into a game.
"After putting our heads together, we came up with the concept that men, you know, have their own built-in games controllers."
The most basic game measures how hard the user can urinate. Others involve the user removing graffiti from a wall and creating wind within the game, that then blows up the skirt of a female character on the screen.
Players can also compete against other users and results can be downloaded onto a memory stick for bragging rights.
The units cost about $1,850 each.
The "Toylet" is not the first video game for men to play while urinating. In November, UK firm Captive Media was granted patent rights to technology for a game that would let men compete in a pub quiz by aiming at the sensor that represented their multiple choice selection.
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