"A Kameo or a Viva Pinata on a DS makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways from a franchise perspective," Shane Kim told 1UP last week at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas. Kim, a Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Game Studios and Phil Spencer, head of Studio Development for Microsoft Game Studios, reinforced Microsoft's commitment to Rare's Pinata-stuffing IP, despite lukewarm performance at retail. "[Viva Pinata] is the beginning of an IP that will be a pillar for Microsoft Game Studios for a long time," Spencer said. Remember last year when Kim called Viva Pinata the most important franchise in the portfolio? Microsoft is still committed to the franchise, "I think it's fair to say that we're going to continue to invest in that property [Viva Pinata]," Kim said. "Whether that is in the form of a sequel, a product line extension or through merchandising, whatever the case may be, that's something that we're going to stick with." Or, as Kim pointed out as a DS title.
But the sales figures for Pinata have been so slow. Wasn't this the title that was supposed to broaden the 360 owner beyond the "core" gamer? Is Microsoft happy with how Rare's game did? "You won't hear us inside Microsoft talking about Viva Pinata as anything other than a success," Spencer said. "For us, it was a successful game, it happened to come at the same time Gears came out, so obviously people put the yardstick out and say 'Hey, which one's bigger?' -- I'm not sure that's how you want to evaluate at this point in the console's life cycle which game is more important."
We already know Rare is working on Banjo, and after having shipped 3 full-length titles in the 360's first year at retail, presumably the team is working on other projects for Microsoft beyond 2008's Banjo title. "Right now the number of things that Rare is looking at on 360 includes a number of 360 prototype projects," Spencer said. "Some of them involve games that we've shipped before; some of them involve new ideas." Is the team working on a new Kameo or going back to the drawing board for another iteration of Perfect Dark? What about the EGM rumor that the next Viva Pinata game would be a Kart Racer? That could translate to either home or portable consoles, couldn't it?
Do Kim's comments mean that Nintendo and Microsoft are entering some partnership to publish portable games for the DS? Absolutely not. However, Kim didn't leave the door open for titles to appear on Sony's handheld like he did with Nintendo's. " Whether you're talking about [publishing games on] mobile or the DS -- you probably won't see it on the PSP, though."
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But the sales figures for Pinata have been so slow. Wasn't this the title that was supposed to broaden the 360 owner beyond the "core" gamer? Is Microsoft happy with how Rare's game did? "You won't hear us inside Microsoft talking about Viva Pinata as anything other than a success," Spencer said. "For us, it was a successful game, it happened to come at the same time Gears came out, so obviously people put the yardstick out and say 'Hey, which one's bigger?' -- I'm not sure that's how you want to evaluate at this point in the console's life cycle which game is more important."
We already know Rare is working on Banjo, and after having shipped 3 full-length titles in the 360's first year at retail, presumably the team is working on other projects for Microsoft beyond 2008's Banjo title. "Right now the number of things that Rare is looking at on 360 includes a number of 360 prototype projects," Spencer said. "Some of them involve games that we've shipped before; some of them involve new ideas." Is the team working on a new Kameo or going back to the drawing board for another iteration of Perfect Dark? What about the EGM rumor that the next Viva Pinata game would be a Kart Racer? That could translate to either home or portable consoles, couldn't it?
Do Kim's comments mean that Nintendo and Microsoft are entering some partnership to publish portable games for the DS? Absolutely not. However, Kim didn't leave the door open for titles to appear on Sony's handheld like he did with Nintendo's. " Whether you're talking about [publishing games on] mobile or the DS -- you probably won't see it on the PSP, though."
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