No DLC for Viva Piñata News
Xbox 360 PC DS News by Games Industry.biz
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: 1-38 of 38 in total
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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!
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@ 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. |
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Psychotext
05/09/07 @ 10:43
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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. |
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@ 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 |
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SniperWolf
05/09/07 @ 10:48
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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.
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Sniperwolf - me too! I played it relentlessly for a week, found all it's flaws, then got distracted by something else and months later when I tried to get back into it again all I saw was hassle and frustration trying to do what I wanted. I'm told I should start a new garden, which I would like to do, but too many games, not enough time. I've not even touched Bioshock in over a week since getting halfway and losing interest.
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Britesparc
05/09/07 @ 12:01
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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... |
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Monkey_Puncher
05/09/07 @ 12:36
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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! |
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Carrybagma
05/09/07 @ 12:36
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Question is, what if it's a huge success on the DS?
Could we see [gasp] it appearing on the Wii?? |
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Britesparc
05/09/07 @ 13:35
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@ 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! ;-) |
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Carrybagma
05/09/07 @ 14:07
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@neilka: Ah, but remember - they both claim not to be in competition with oneanother!
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Royal Fool
05/09/07 @ 16:32
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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".
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Carrybagma
06/09/07 @ 02:01
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No. Just VP. And I'm not suggesting it's even likely. Just, not impossible.
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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... |
Comments: 1-38 of 38 in total
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