Spartan_X Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 Jury is still out' on downloadable content, says Rare Matt Martin 12:14 29/11/2006 Viva Pi?ata developer waiting for proven success before committing> Viva Pi?ata developer Rare has told GamesIndustry.biz it's reluctant to develop downloadable content for Xbox 360 until the service reveals proven results. Although the developer has released some content for previous titles, and has supported the release of Viva Pi?ata in the US with a modest amount of material, the studio is unsure of committing manpower to developing new material for its projects. "We've got plenty of ideas for what we can do with downloadable content because Pi?ata is such a unique game," said Gregg Mayles, lead designer at Rare. "But the jury is still out." "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," he added. Although Rare supported launch title Kameo: Elements of Power with new material, production director Simon Farmer doesn't feel the uptake of content was any indication of the potential market. "There was a reasonable take-up on the free content, but the rest of it was reasonably limited," commented Farmer. "That was probably because the initial purchases of the 360 were the hardcore fans who perhaps wouldn't have been drawn to Kameo, so were less likely to download that premium content." "For Rare that wasn't a good way of gauging the market, as far as I'm concerned," he added. "From our perspective it's all relatively new to us because we've always been cartridge based. We don't know what the best possible model is for us." However, the team does still see the potential of Xbox Live and the push for downloadable content, with Viva Pi?ata offering interaction between players over the service. "That vision of sending Pi?ata to each other was around before Xbox Live even existed. That's why [Viva Pi?ata] began life on a handheld PDA devise because we wanted one machine that could communicate with another," revealed Mayles. Farmer added that the content Rare would like to create would have to be value for money from the consumers perspective, and he's willing to observe other developers to see which methods yield the best results. "There's no way we're going to be in a position where we feel like we're ripping the consumer off. We'll have to look at it, and how it pans out with the other games on 360," he said. Microsoft, which bought Rare back in 2002 for US $375 million, sees downloadable content as key to extending a games' shelf life, and pushes the concept as a crucial component of the Xbox 360 experience. The full interview with Rare will be published on GamesIndustry.biz this FrSource:ce: GamesIndustry.biz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoTrunks Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 I took a look at the Kameo content and thought about downloading it. But that's not going to happen until I get through a lot of other games. Kameo is great, but I've moved on. I'll be getting to it again, as I never finished it. I just bought an HDTV today, so maybe that might be an incentive to check out a lot of my other games (Oblivion!!). :jump: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragon2611 Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 i did download the GRAW Chapter 2 pack, and a few things for obivion (to use up some remaining points i had after buying the graw pack). If its actually something worthwhile i might be persuaded to buy it but usally i dont bother unless its free of course then i'll go grab it. At least the G.R.A.W pack gave me a load of new maps and stuff which made me feel like i was getting something for my money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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