Milo "was never a product" - Microsoft

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 4 November, 2010

Tech "migrated" to Kinectimals.

Microsoft has insisted Peter Molyneux's rumoured to be cancelled Kinect title Project Milo "was never a product" and "was never announced as a game".

In September Eurogamer brought you the news that the controversial Kinect relationship simulator, revealed at E3 2009, had been cancelled.

We were told the Milo team were to use the Milo tech for a Fable-themed Kinect game.

The news followed months of pubic to-ing and fro-ing between Lionhead boss Molyneux and Microsoft over Project Milo's status as a game that would eventually be released.

"Of course!" Molyneux said in August when asked whether we'll be able to buy it in the shops at some point in the future. "I wouldn't be working on it if I didn't hope that to be true, yes."

Today, however, Microsoft said Project Milo never stood a chance of hitting shop shelves.

"Milo was never announced as a game," Alex Kipman, Microsoft's director of incubation and creator of Kinect, told GamesIndustry.biz.

"Peter Molyneux is probably one of the most amazing people I've had the pleasure of collaborating with. So, there's the world of creating paint colours and paintbrushes - that's me. Then there's the world of creating pictures based on these paint colours and paintbrushes - that's Peter Molyneux, it's a give and take. It's a partnership.

"Peter comes to me and says, you know what Alex, there are these stories I've always wanted to tell, if only I had these paint colours and paintbrushes. And I say to Peter, 'I have a new selection of paints and paintbrushes - what can you paint with it?'

"You see how these things interchange with each other and then collectively we come up with these transformational, revolutionary experiences. Milo was a sandbox. In this world of creating experiences I used voice, gestures, identity together. Milo was the sandbox which allowed us to define how to do these experiences, and what you saw was a transformational experience where you got a level of emotional connection unlike anything you had seen before."

For fans of Project Milo, however, all is not lost. Kipman said the tech behind it can be seen in Kinect launch title Kinectimals.

"Now, where has Milo gone? It was never really a product," he said. "I will tell you that the technology developed in that sandbox, and by the way we continue to develop technologies in that sandbox, has migrated pretty closely to what you see in a game called Kinectimals.

"Kinectimals is about creating an emotional, deep relationship between you and this tiger cub. It uses identity, knows who you are. It actually reacts differently when you walk in front of it, because it's your tiger, than when I walk in front of it, because it doesn't know me. It uses voice, so that you can interact with it and play with it, it uses gestures and essentially moves you to this deep adventure on an island where you're finding the secret of a pirate in much the same way as a traditional adventure type game.

"This is one of what I would say was one of the key innovations, that captured people's minds with Milo - this idea that we could create an emotion engine, an engine that would fuse these human input behaviours and create a relationship with this imaginary character. What I think you see in Kinectimals is precisely that."

With Kinect now out in the US, reviews are starting to pour in. Keza awarded Kinectimals 7/10 for Eurogamer.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Freek #1 2 years ago

    Except that David Braben already denied any technology from Milo made it into Kinectanimals. At this point, I don't think anybody is really clear on what the goal of Milo really was. Molyneux thought he was making a real game, MS thought he was just testing some tech for other projects, PR thinks it's nothing more then an E3 demo.

    Maybe they're all right.

  • Ultrasoundwave #2 2 years ago

    So i wont get a chance to befriend (groom) a young boy?

    damn it....?

    :/

  • maxx #3 2 years ago

    Stop with the paint & paintbrushes ffs, thats 2 or maybe 3 articles now they talk about it....

    Find something new to say...

  • grayn #4 2 years ago

    "The news followed months of pubic to-ing and fro-ing"

    Erm....

  • Gambit1977 #5 2 years ago

    Thank god! Is the world really ready for a Paedo-sim?

  • PixelPirate #6 2 years ago

    Wow lots of PR Spin linking to a project that has nothing to do with it.

    Clearly Molyneux thought he was building a good game, and MS didnt like it so canned it.

  • 3william56 #7 2 years ago

    Please shut Alex Kipman up. He's taking the world crown for talking b*ll*cks away from Kotick.

    Must be a hard life being a sock puppet.

  • kestral #8 2 years ago

    Lesson learned: Next time don't trust something to be a game if it is polished too far in advance of a possible release date.
    Edited by kestral at 04/11/10 @ 09:32

  • QPRHOOPS81 #9 2 years ago

    What a load of arse. I know someone who worked on it and got made redundant when it was cancelled. It certainly was going to be a game.

  • Deckard1 #10 2 years ago

    Molyneux has Milo in a Fritzl style dungeon under his house.

  • Riggers #11 2 years ago

    Odd, odd story. David Braben has previously said that Milo had nothing to do with Kinectimals, and is a completely seperate entity. I do find it a bit hard to believe that Frontier, who (as far as I know) are an independent dev studio would have been allowed/would have wanted to integrate tech from another studio, even if that studio was a Microsoft owned one.

    Not to mention the ongoing saga of whether Milo was ever going to be a game or not. It's a bit like Polly put the kettle on...

    Edited by Riggers at 04/11/10 @ 09:51

  • TrevSkyline #12 2 years ago

    Who really cares?

    Kinetic IMHO is rubbish anyway.

  • mossychops001 #13 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:49:27 04-05-2012

  • BBIAJ #14 2 years ago

    Just what the Hell is "director of incubation"!?

  • Golgo #15 2 years ago

    Oh, FFS. Molyneux will be reported by this afternoon saying it 'is' and it's 'on', etc.

  • Lee_Morris #16 2 years ago

    This is what happens when PR doesn't have a tight handle on the release of info on a game. It really highlights controlled most game releases are. We shouldn't complain about this situation even though it seems like we should. We should champion people like Molyneux being able to speak freely on ideas and concepts. We've been given a glimpse behind the curtain. Sadly I doubt Molyneux will have that level of freedom again.

    Then again MS may have allowed it because it was a concept that could be integrated into a proper game which is something which is very light on the immediate and near future of the Kinect line up.

  • sonicyoda #17 2 years ago

    Never a product? Then why did you use it to sell your hardware (initially)? That will confuse a lot of people.

  • kangarootoo #18 2 years ago

    Two thoughts.

    1. This makes sense. It should have always been a cuddly wolf cub instead of a 10 year old boy.

    2. Stop going on about Milo MS, we get it now, its not real, a good thing too, you can stop telling us whether or not it was ever a proper product now, we've moved onto other things.

  • orangpelupa #19 2 years ago

    dimitri project - unknown
    then become milo project - again, become unknown the status.

    its seems that Peter really like this dimitry/milo project. But something keep holding this project from reality. Hmm..
    Maybe Peter set the bar too high. or too dreamy/visionary.

    btw the Tech of Project Milo, give it to Japanese developer :)

    remember @NUDE game for XBOX 1?
    with milo tech, it will be alot better i think.

  • thesombrerokid #20 2 years ago

    spin

  • linksdad #21 2 years ago

    It is understood that Lionhead couldn't introduce enough bugs in the timeframe prior to Kinnect's launch that the product had to be cancelled.

  • Rack #22 2 years ago

    Wait, Kinectimals runs on someone in the background watching what you're doing and manually selecting appropriate animations? Isn't that a touch wasteful?

  • Skywise #23 2 years ago

    Seems like MS is more interested in Fable 4, 5, ... than in creating new series.
    Maybe a change of employer is coming?
    Edited by Skywise at 04/11/10 @ 17:18

  • Mkwone #24 2 years ago

    Is this the same guy who talked about paint metaphors yesterday?

  • Smoped #25 2 years ago

    Well, the Kinectimals video that I saw made it seem like Black & White minus the game part, so maybe there's something there...

  • Triggerhappytel #26 2 years ago

    Someone in Microsoft's PR really needs to clarify their stance on it. So far, I think it's gone something like this:


    E3 2009 - Milo & Kate shown as the principal 'Natal' demo. Insinuated if not outright confirmed to be an actual game in development.
    E3 2010 - not shown. Later said that it wouldn't have fitted in with the bombast of E3. 'Actual' gameplay demoed at TED Oxford instead.
    Post-E3 2010 - Molyneux says that it's definitely happening and will be released as an actual game.
    Days later - Microsoft announces Milo has been cancelled. Molyneux basically blames it on his American bosses who couldn't envision where to take the game.
    Thereafter - Greenberg (I think?) says in an interview that the Milo tech has been integrated into Kinectimals. David Braben later refutes this.
    Now - Alex Kipman (what the fuck is a 'director of incubation'?!) again claims that Kinectimals is using some of the Milo tech, contrary to previous statements by the development team.


    Basically, the whole Milo thing seems to have been a massive clusterfuck from day one, and the left hand and right hand could really do with speaking once in a while.

  • Kerome #27 2 years ago

    Seems like a bit of backside-covering to me, it sure looked like it was supposed to be a full game at E3.

    Anyway, the comments are more about the basic Kinect tech - voice and so on - than about stuff that would actually have been written for the game. Bit of a shame, I quite liked Milo, even though it was a pretty off-the-wall concept.

  • tgigreeny #28 2 years ago

    Is it just me or does kipman sound like a bit of a prat?