No DLC for Viva Piñata

By Games Industry.biz Published 5 September, 2007

Rare busy doing other stuff.

Rare has confirmed that it will not produce any further downloadable content for Xbox 360 title Viva Piņata, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

The Microsoft-owned developer made the comment on its own website in response to a question from a fan. Rare also said the Viva Piņata team is working on an alternative project.

"We aren't doing any downloadable content for Viva Piņata because we are much too busy doing something else," wrote a member of the Viva Piņata team in the Scribes column.

The revelation echoes comments made by Rare late last year. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, lead designer Gregg Mayles expressed scepticism about the value of producing downloadable content for Viva Piņata unless there was significant demand.

"The jury is still out," Mayles said at the time.

"It's almost pointless doing a huge amount of work at this point, because if it's not going to be successful you may as well put that effort into making a new game."

Viva Piņata has not been the mass market success Rare and Microsoft were hoping for. It sold poorly on its release in late 2006, failing to break into the UK all-formats top 40.

However, although the original release will not be supported with DLC, both developer and publisher are committed to developing the Viva Piņata brand further.

PC and Nintendo DS versions have been announced, along with a spin-off party game, Viva Piņata Party Animals, which is in development at Krome Studios.

At present it is unclear whether the "something else" being developed by the Viva Piņata team is an extension of the franchise or an all-new project.

Less rare are news-animals over on GamesIndustry.biz, which can be seen daily grazing from the fallowed field of fact.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • Rirekon #1 5 years ago

    It's a real shame it never got the attention commercially that, in my opinion, it deserved. I suspect the blatant targeting of a younger audience didn't help, they really should have published a version in less "kiddy" packaging to sit along side it.

  • Heartcore_Ninja #2 5 years ago

    Surely they would be referring to Banjo?

  • woodnotes #3 5 years ago

    Can't wait to see what Rare are working on. We haven't see a single screen shot on any game they're developing right now. They have 4 console teams, one of which are working on Banjo, and all we saw was a teaser. What the hell are they up to?!

  • Darren #4 5 years ago

    I thought Viva Pinata was terrific, still is; it's a breath of fresh air on the 360. It really pains me when a game as good as this gets overlooked and sells poorly. Maybe Microsoft shouldn't have released it so close to Gears of War, maybe released it in the summer as it's one of those perfect summer games really, cute and brightly coloured, very charmng and definitely Rare's best game since... oooooooooooo... Banjo-Tooie on the N64!

  • Dizzy #5 5 years ago

    I am just hoping they will use that incredible graphics engine in new stuff.

  • Anthony_UK #6 5 years ago

    Killer Instinct 3

  • Saladin #7 5 years ago

    It really was a great game, but you can see why it didn't do so well. I can't exactly see the average, Need For Speed Underground 2 fan feeling comfortable with buying it.

  • woodnotes #8 5 years ago

    @Heartcore_Ninja: No, The Viva Pinata team is not working on Banjo. Apparently the Banjo team is made up mainly of the staffers who worked on the original Banjo (And Grabbed by the Ghoulies?!)

  • evild_edd #9 5 years ago

    @ Rirekon - I agree. The same thing they did with Harry Potter books, for example.

    The game is enjoyable if a little repetitive after a while (having to play the same romance games and using romance sweets to get "Pinatas in the mood" just to get the master romancer category was a bit of a nuisance).

    As for the DLC; I'd imagine that most people who bought the game are in my shoes, having enjoyed and played it a fair amount, but still only scratched the surface on the content already included.

    DLC isn't what was needed for this title - that was better online MP options to allow you to interact with Friends' gardens IMO.

  • Psychotext #10 5 years ago

    I still plan on picking up Viva when I get a 360, looks great.

    I think Party Animals will suit the younger audience a lot better though... MS needs a lot more of those sort of games if they want to appeal to families.

  • Iceman_GB #11 5 years ago

    I think the brand stands a far better chance on the DS. It seems strange that everyone says how good it was, and yet there sales figures suggest barely anyone bought it. I loved it, but found the build limit to be frustratingly low.

  • woodnotes #12 5 years ago

    @ Darren: It didn't sell well because:

    a) There weren't enough similar games on 360 to back it up in to a system-seller
    b) The majority of the 360 audience were definitely shooters fans at that point
    c) The console was still too expensive to be seen as a kiddy-console purchase
    d) The Wii was stealing everyone's thunder

  • gogobaka #13 5 years ago

    That's a shame.

    Absolutely brilliant game. Just started playing it again, and it really is superb.

  • menage #14 5 years ago

    Yep. Great game. My girlfriend is gonna cry. She always thought thee would be new Pinata's.

  • SniperWolf #15 5 years ago

    Viva Pinata was good, but it's one of those game that when you put down you never returned to, well for me it was. Only played it for about a week and then couldn't pick it up again for some reason.

  • brooza #16 5 years ago

    I've just got my girlfriend hooked on this.

    I enjoyed it, but the thing that killed it for me was the breeding minigames, they're just too tedious to have to do CONSTANTLY

  • Xerx3s #17 5 years ago

    Killer Instinct 3

    Want. That or KI on xbla. But they should release something with a decent dpad. How else can you make those 10k hit combo's? ;)

  • Xerx3s #18 5 years ago

    Btw, I think that VP party animals is going to blow. It has all the warning marks of a cheap, unoriginal title trying to cash in on the good reviews of the original.

  • miiiguel #19 5 years ago

    Shit; shit! Brilliant game, but it should have been targeted by the markting team to young parents rather than young kids.
    I've played it all the way, got all the Piņatas... now what?
    Historical items shelf, I guess.

  • Hunam #20 5 years ago

    VP is a great game, can't wait for the DS version.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #21 5 years ago

    That's a shame, but I'm glad they're sticking with the brand. Hopefully it'll be a big success on DS, and that'll feed into the inevitable sequel. I agree VP: Party Animals looks a bit toss, but hopefully it'll be fun for five minutes if nothing else.

    I'd like to see in VP2:

    - A slightly simplified control system, so we weren't flicking through menus
    - An easier first hour to tempt in newcomers (and kids! It's meant to be a kids' ame!)
    - More interactivity with other players - visiting friends' gardens, etc
    - Different environments - maybe you can have more than one garden, and they're all different, and therefore attract different Pinatas
    - If possible, a larger garden and more Pinatas
    - The most important thing: make it easier to separate warring Pinatas, or rescue them! It's so frustrating when you're informed of two Pinatas fighting and you can't separate them, or if they keep trodding on fences or something...

  • neilka #22 5 years ago

    I seem to remember the DLC was on the disc anyway, and just unlocked when you paid for it, so it's probably just that there's no more left to unlock.

  • Monkey_Puncher #23 5 years ago

    They originally planned to release large content packs after the game was released, those small accessory packs were just to tide you over. Guess the terrible sales figures made them think twice about new content :(

    Looking forward to Banjo though, should be great!

  • Carrybagma #24 5 years ago

    Question is, what if it's a huge success on the DS?

    Could we see [gasp] it appearing on the Wii??

  • Rirekon #25 5 years ago

    @ Britesparc;
    It's not meant to be a kids game, it was just marketed as a kids game (which was their mistake imho).
    As for warring Pinata, use the watering can on them ;-)

  • neilka #26 5 years ago

    "Could we see [gasp] it appearing on the Wii??"

    Not while MS still own Rare!

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #27 5 years ago

    @ Rirekon

    I could never get the watering can to do any good... there should a "soft shovel" option, where you can smack 'em across the garden without fear of bursting them open! ;-)

  • Carrybagma #28 5 years ago

    @neilka: Ah, but remember - they both claim not to be in competition with oneanother!

  • menage #29 5 years ago

    "I've just got my girlfriend hooked on this."

    Prepare to lose tour 360. Mine has created 10 gardens or so, and 2 accounts just to see the movies again.

  • Royal Fool #30 5 years ago

    There's never been so much as a update (bug fix/feature tweak) released for this game, which should easily show people how much Rare are "committed".

  • Xerx3s #31 5 years ago

    I don't recall coming across bugs so maybe they released a good build? *shock*

  • Arcadiian #32 5 years ago

    @ Carrybagma.

    I'm a bit late, but are you saying (near enough) that Microsoft could release every first party Xbox 360 title onto the Wii, because Nintendo say they're not in competition ? If that happened, you'd soon see how they are.

  • Carrybagma #33 5 years ago

    No. Just VP. And I'm not suggesting it's even likely. Just, not impossible.

  • pikemon #34 5 years ago

    if they had ported it to xbox i would have bought it. but well, i guess i will eventually own x360 looking at how ps3 is currently turning out
    Edited by 1 at 06/09/07 @ 09:13

  • Kismet. #35 5 years ago

    I'm looking ahead for the PC version of this one, though I've got yet to hear anything new about it past the E3 announcement. Glad to hear it has not been silently canned.

    With further releases of downloadable content being suspended, I wonder if the PC edition will include what's been made available so far.

    Sad to hear it didn't do too well commercially, I can't make any statement without having played it, but it looked like an interesting game with a brilliant visual design, actually one of the few games exclusive to 360 that grabbed my interest...