MS sees DS as "very viable" - Rare

By Oli Welsh Published 11 June, 2008

Using it to find wider audience for Piņata.

Developers working on Rare's Viva Piņata game for DS have commented that Microsoft, which owns the UK studio, respects the handheld from rivals Nintendo.

"They see DS as a very viable platform," engineer Joe Humfrey told Eurogamer during a visit to the studio to play the game.

Since acquiring Rare in 2002, Microsoft has allowed Rare to maintain a handheld development team working on GBA and DS titles, although it has not published any of them itself. Rare has even made one game directly for Nintendo in that time - last year's Diddy Kong Racing DS.

However, in the case of the THQ-published Viva Piņata: Pocket Paradise, Humfrey pointed out that it's in the software giant's own interest to have the game appear on the Nintendo machine.

"They put the Viva Piņata franchise on TV to reach a broad audience, they put it on PC to reach a different broad audience, and they're doing the same thing with the DS," he said. "They're trying to widen the audience of the franchise, basically."

Lead designer Gary Richards explained that this wouldn't be at the expense of dumbing down the game, however. "We wanted to tie it in with the TV series more, we thought that would be enough to get the younger audience into it. But we didn't want to lose any of the depth that Pinata had," he said.

The developers explained that their main headaches in bringing the 360 and PC game to the dual-screen portable was simply squeezing the amount of content - animations particularly - onto the cart, but the DS surprised them with its technical capacity.

"We were split into two camps, those who thought we could do it, and those who thought we couldn't do it," Humfrey said.

"But I don't think we ever got to the point where we had to start taking stuff out of the game," added Richards. "And the interface was never going to be an issue," he added, alluding to the ease of use of the DS' touch-screen controls for a game like Viva Piņata.

Asked if the Pocket Paradise team had swapped any ideas with the developers of 360 sequel Trouble In Paradise, Humfrey said that they hand't - but might as well have done.

"We had some of the same ideas to solve the issues with the first game, because we were almost developing independently at the same time," he said. "For example, they've got 'just for fun' mode, which pretty much parallels the playground mode that we have."

For more on Viva Piņata: Pocket Paradise, head over to our hands-on preview.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Charlie_Miso #1 4 years ago

    So Goldeneye DS confirmed then?

  • 3william56 #2 4 years ago

    DS "very viable"... based on how many gajillion sold, and how many squillions of profitbucks?
    As opposed to the Xbox, with considerably fewer gajillions sold, and has made about 3 bob 50 profit.

    In other news, MS declares Wii "might do OK", motor cars "should catch on eventually", iPod "a solid proposition" and mobile phones "may not just be a passing fad".

    Wow. With business brains like those, it's no wonder they dominate the OS market.

  • AusFreelancer #3 4 years ago

    Nintendbox D60 nextgen?

  • theidiotsarewinning #4 4 years ago

    hand't?

  • Dark_Era #5 4 years ago

    well gotta say this might just be the proof that MS gamimg division isn't as profitable as it seems, but at least they sure are trying to break even at all costs. i mean common lets face facts even though they say they wanna broaden the audience, it's still gotta do with how much return they make.
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/08 @ 13:41

  • Wash #6 4 years ago

    Some cynics in here aint there :p

    Surely generating interest on handhelds (something M$ av no hands in), will only make ppl think more aboot viva pinata? which in turn cant be a bad thing.

  • Moz #7 4 years ago

    Very smart move by MS, if VivaP does well on the DS then with any luck a lot of those people will want to then play the full fat versions on the 360, think of it as a crowbar into the casual market. I just hope this isn't the start of a Ninty MS alliance cos then we're back to just two player in the console market which would be bad!!!

  • Mr_Brown #8 4 years ago

    Would make sense to use the DS to popularise its IP. Many see supporting rival consoles as idiotic, but if you don't have a product in that market its much cheaper than developing your own handheld and it may win over some of extra user base for the home console. A good move.

  • WinterSnowblind #9 4 years ago

    @3william56

    I think you're missing what they're saying. If Viva Pinata sells well on the DS, the fans of that version are then forced to buy the true version for the 360. I don't think they've ever denied the fact the DS/Wii are selling very well.

  • Charlie_Miso #10 4 years ago

    Son - I luv DS Pinta. Cans I have xbox?
    Dad - Fuck off.

    True story.

  • Mr_Bogus #11 4 years ago

    How to piss off MS:

    "I enjoyed Viva Pinata on the DS, and would like to play the PC version. Please could you release it for Linux?"