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Speaking to 1UP at last week’s DICE Summit, Microsoft’s Shane Kim and Phil Spencer offered considerable support for the critically adored but commercial failure Viva Piñata.
Phil Spencer, head of Studio Development for Microsoft Game Studios, believes that Viva Piñata “is the beginning of an IP that will be a pillar for Microsoft Game Studios for a long time.” Shane Kim also offered support for the game, noting that Microsoft will “continue to invest in that property” be that a product line extension or through merchandising.”
Kim also revealed that he believes “a Kameo or a Viva Pinata on a DS makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways from a franchise perspective.“
It’s also clear that within the walls of Microsoft you won’t hear the words “failure” and “Viva Piñata” uttered in the same breath.
“For us, it was a successful game, it happened to come at the same time Gears came out, so obviously people put the yardstick out and say ‘Hey, which one’s bigger?’ – I’m not sure that’s how you want to evaluate at this point in the console’s life cycle which game is more important,” said Spencer.
