Expect more Viva Piñata

By Tom Bramwell Published 13 February, 2007

Says top exec. On DS, perhaps.

Top men at Microsoft have said the firm aims to support Rare's brilliant Viva Piñata in future, and has even raised the possibility of the British developer's Xbox 360 games appearing on Nintendo DS.

"I think it's fair to say that we're going to continue to invest in that property," Shane Kim, one of Microsoft Game Studios' corporate vice presidents, told 1UP last week. "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." He also said "a Kameo or a Viva Piñata on a DS makes a lot of sense".

Viva Piñata was a bit of a critical darling at the back end of last year, but its performance was overshadowed by the much greater success of Gears of War, and a quick glance at the Xbox 360 UK charts reveals it languishing below some of its older contemporaries including Saints Row and Dead Rising.

But with the accompanying television show still to launch in Europe, the prospect of downloadable content and Microsoft's pledged support, its fortunes could yet shift. In the meantime, we'll probably just continue to mention it every other day in the hope fence-sitters will tumble into the flowers below. And then gets a cocoadile to cry on them, for maximum fertilisation.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (38) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • AcidSnake #1 5 years ago

    Who?!

    Top men...

  • Dizzy #2 5 years ago

    Awesome game... it does seem to do reasonably well. Most of my friends have gotten it now after word of mouth.

    On DS? Yes please.
    Edited by Dizzy at 13/02/07 @ 10:09

  • Steroyd #3 5 years ago

    Hold on I thought it was impossible (highly improbable now) for Microsoft published stuff to go on non MS products. o_O

    No Exclusive is safe not even the 1st Party ones

  • Darren #4 5 years ago

    It would be a crying shame if Rare's best game in years was deemed a flop as it's quite brilliant and a geniune breath of fresh air on a console dominated by shooting, racing and sports games. I'd hope it does well enough to get an expanded sequel sometime in 2008.

    Oh and the cartoon is great stuff too and very funny, almost Pixar-quality in my opinion with a diverse and interesting selection of characters... watched every one that's been released on Xbox Live Marketplace so far and enjoyed them all.

  • Blerk #5 5 years ago

    Such a shame that Rare's most original and best-rated title in years sold so badly that they have to think about doing a DS version in order to actually sell it. What do Microsoft have to do to sell 'different' stuff to the majority of the 360 user base?

  • Der_tolle_Emil #6 5 years ago

    Rare was always allowed to release games for portable consoles when it was bought by Microsoft. Rare released a couple of GBA games and DS games (Diddy Kong Racing) after being bought by MS. I have not that much knowledge of intellectual property rights so I have no idea who actually owns Viva Pinata but I would very much like to see it on the DS.

  • mrsquare #7 5 years ago

    Why do my hazlenut trees keep dying? They keep going all brown and scummy...

  • DDevil #8 5 years ago

    I'm buying VP today. The special edition is only £29.99 new in Gamestation at the moment.

  • gogobaka #9 5 years ago

    £24.99 in Argos.

    Excellent game.

  • Jdoki #10 5 years ago

    Now, if only they could get some sort of Xbox360 / Nintendo DS crossover going... be kinda cool to be able to upload a garden from the DS and continue playing it on 360 and visa versa... :)

    I'm sure it'd shift a few 360's in Japan as Viva on DS would really suit that market...

  • Steroyd #11 5 years ago

    I'm sure it'd shift a few 360's in Japan as Viva on DS would really suit that market...

    Why would japan buy it for the Xbox 360 when they can get it on the DS.

    I know that lines been used alot, but it'd be less incentive for anyone in Japan to get Xbox 360 not more.

    @Der_tolle_Emil

    I'm aware that Rare can develop for Nintendo handhelds, mainly Banjoe Kazooie and Nintendo owned property like Diddy kong Racing, but it's a first that an original concept developed on the Xbox 360 could be shifted to a Nintendo handheld.

    It's like Gears of War going to the PSP.

  • TripSkyway #12 5 years ago

    The special edition box is a right pain to get the game in and out, I wish I'd bought the standard one. It is a nice looking box though.

    Maybe it'll come out on the Zune and sell even less. Jdoki's DS plan sounds quite good for Japan.

  • thedaveeyres #13 5 years ago

    It's the game that persuaded me to buy a 360 last week. Let's have a sequal please!

  • TheEnd #14 5 years ago

    Criminally overlooked game.

  • spongebob #15 5 years ago

    How's Viva Pinata selling?

  • Dizzy #16 5 years ago

    >How's Viva Pinata selling?

    Did badly when launched... but I suspect it might keep on selling in small quantities for quite a while so in the end it might do well.

  • Xerx3s #17 5 years ago

    Hold on I thought it was impossible (highly improbable now) for Microsoft published stuff to go on non MS products. o_O

    MS has been publishing big 1st party products for decades now on other system, including sony, nintendo and sega.

  • IAmBatman #18 5 years ago

    I hope they sort the interface out in the sequel.

  • BBIAJ #19 5 years ago

    @spongebob:

    "Viva Piñata was a bit of a critical darling at the back end of last year, but its performance was overshadowed by the much greater success of Gears of War, and a quick glance at the Xbox 360 UK charts reveals it languishing below some of its older contemporaries including Saints Row and Dead Rising."

    There's your answer in the article right there... ;o)

  • samk #20 5 years ago

    "Viva Piñata was a bit of a critical darling at the back end of last year, but its performance was overshadowed by the much greater success of Gears of War, and a quick glance at the Xbox 360 UK charts reveals it languishing below some of its older contemporaries including Saints Row and Dead Rising."

    Most people just want to shoot monsters/gangbangers/zombies. Maybe a shift in marketing strategy for Viva Pinata is required; rather than the focus being on building nice homes and gardens for cutsey animals, tell people they can breed mice to feed to snakes, order a worm to have sex with its daughter, breed bees and ants with the sole intention of getting them to fight to the death, buy bad sweets to make your animals ill, etc.

    Come on, you lot have got a kick out of those things too. :o)

  • nickthegun #21 5 years ago

    It does bear repeating that if you own a 360, you owe it to yourself to buy Viva Pinata.

    Especially if you are one of these types who bemoans the fact that casual gamers are ruining the industry and that innovation is dead. Because any game that allows me to breed a swan with a pig to make a hideous circus freak is as innovative as they come.

  • kissthestick #22 5 years ago

    How's Viva Pinata selling?

    did 30k in its first month in US according to NPD

  • Brogan #23 5 years ago

    bought VP this weekend, love it. My mates had to come round and drag me out the house on saturday night and was late for work for the frist time in 3 years yesterday because i couldn't put it down.

  • moggsy #24 5 years ago

    What do Microsoft have to do to sell 'different' stuff to the majority of the 360 user base?

    Do more of it. Doing one 'different' game will not sell the console to people who aren't into FPS's etc. If you had a cluster of 'different' games though then it might be a different matter...

  • bonker #25 5 years ago

    I liked the game but the over the top tips-for-kids a real put off at the start. I know MS really wanted to push it at kids and make it a cinch to play but they shoulda toned it down a bit for adults, it got on my tits after a while - fantastic concept for a game tho!

  • gogobaka #26 5 years ago

    "What do Microsoft have to do to sell 'different' stuff to the majority of the 360 user base?"

    Do it better.

    Should have started simple, then got complicated, instead it just started complicated and got more complicated, with leaf face interrupting you all the time, insane menus, strange levelling system, too frustrating at times (especially seen as it's aimed at little girls), felt like it was too complex for kids and too cute for adults. They'd have been better off simplifying it for the kid market IMO. Bit buggy as well...

    Excellent game, and I wholeheartedly recommend it, but I can see why it flopped.

  • Xerx3s #27 5 years ago

    gogobaka: I don't know what you have played but it is one of the easiest games ever made. Even my 3 yo nephew and niece don't need any help to play it.

  • Dizzy #28 5 years ago

    >gogobaka

    Never seen a bug.

    Also kids play it differently. Their aims are not the same... usually they just enjoy messing around. Most of the kids (of players) in my WoW guild just like to run around on horses or fly around with mounts. Monsters? Naaaaaa. Quests? Nope. Big lakes? Oh YES!
    Edited by Dizzy at 13/02/07 @ 13:49

  • chupachups #29 5 years ago

    You're all talking about the European and American charts, but if you take a look at the Japanese charts you'll see that Viva Pinata was one of the 360's best-selling games there, and it's still in the 360's Top 10 on Amazon Japan:

    [link url=http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/bestsellers/videogames/15783231/ref=pd_ts_c_th_head/249-2956308-6916366
    ]http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/bestsellers/v...[/link]

    The indifference of the Japanese market is perhaps the biggest problem that the 360 still faces, and games like this are exactly what the console needs to crack that nut. One game on its own won't do it, but line up 10 or 20 others like it and you have a much more viable proposition for Japanese gamers.
    Edited by chupachups at 13/02/07 @ 13:42

  • BadBoyBonner #30 5 years ago

    HAHAHAHA - killed two birds with one stone - Just bought the GF it for Valentines Day - That will teach her for buying me the Peter Kay book for Xmas an start reading it before me! lol

    Before any women (or men for that mater) start going on dont worry it was ontop of the wine flowers an choc's. An should go down better than the Vicky Entwhistle exercise video I was thinking of getting her instead! Lol

    Edit - "it"=Viva Pinata on 360, forgot to mention that bit lol
    Edited by BadBoyBonner at 13/02/07 @ 15:14

  • gogobaka #31 5 years ago

    It's too easy to blame the 360s user base.

    For starters good games on any platform flop, just like good films and good albums flop.

    Secondly the graphics are really really cute, like they're trying to out-cute nintendo, I don't mind it, but a lot of gamers just can't stand cutesy graphics. So straight away they've cut out a big portion of the market.

    Thirdly I don't think this is the kind of game that a busy parent who doesn't know anything about games can just throw at their kid and expect them to have fun with it.

    Fourthly kids grow up fast these days, they don't want to be playing gaywad games about pinatas, they want to be playing gangsta, shooting, racing games.

    Should have come out on the DS to begin with.

  • chupachups #32 5 years ago

    "Fourthly kids grow up fast these days, they don't want to be playing gaywad games about pinatas, they want to be playing gangsta, shooting, racing games. "

    That'll be why the PSP (GTA and three zillion racing games) has done so much better than the DS (Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, New Super Mario etc) then?


    "Secondly the graphics are really really cute, like they're trying to out-cute nintendo, I don't mind it, but a lot of gamers just can't stand cutesy graphics. So straight away they've cut out a big portion of the market. "

    But if you don't use cute graphics you're ALSO cutting out a big portion of the market.

    Nintendo's consoles have very cute graphics, the Wii practically has a cute character generator built into it, and at the moment they're outselling Microsoft's and Sony's.

    Microsoft was quite rightly trying to go after the same audience as Nintendo, because it's a huge audience and they want a piece of it. One game won't sell well, but this one game and a load of sequels might start to open people's eyes about the 360.

    It's not like you have to have EITHER one audience OR another on a console, something like the PS2 managed to get both hardcore mature gamers and casual family gamers (Buzz, Eyetoy, Singstar were all casual family-friendly games).
    Edited by chupachups at 13/02/07 @ 15:44

  • jonsaan #33 5 years ago

    I love Viva Pinata. I also loved Banjo and they managed to make a completely horrible handheld version of that. Please do it justice Rare.

  • EmiliasHorse #34 5 years ago

    Love VP. Like the sound of a DS version, but would really love to see VP2.

  • gogobaka #35 5 years ago

    Surely the PSP has struggled, because it's expensive, and the games aren't good enough?

    The success of animal crossing, nintendogs, and new super mario just reinforces my earlier point that Viva Pinata should have been dumbed down for the kid market.

  • Fatallyflawed #36 5 years ago

    I got VP on release day and became hugely addicted to it, so much so that I stopped WoW. its diffinitely one my top 3 360 games of last year.

  • SimonM7 #37 5 years ago

    I too want to be a top man. :(

  • The-Bodybuilder #38 5 years ago

    >"Nintendo's consoles have very cute graphics, the Wii practically has a cute character generator built into it, and at the moment they're outselling Microsoft's and Sony's. "

    What the??? The Wii isn't outselling the 360.
    And let's not forget it's the "cutesyness" of nintendo is what hurt them for years. How many KIDS looked over the n64 and mario64/banjo for ps1 with gran turismo and such? Or overlooked the gamecube for GTA3 for the ps2?

    The sad fact is, the vast majority of kids think they are "mature" and play "mature" games.