GDC: Rare promises more Viva Piñata

Rare has told GamesIndustry.biz that consumers can expect more Viva Piñata in the future - with the developer promising to support the Xbox 360 franchise for at least another two or three years.

Microsoft has targeted Viva Piñata at the family audience and with a tie-in animated series hopes to capture a younger market not currently associated with its next-gen home console.

"We're pleased with the overall support that it's got and there's more to come within that franchise," said Lee Schuneman, head of production at Rare.

"We'd obviously like more sales, but we were happy with the game and critically it's gone down very well."

The game was released at the beginning of December but failed to break into the top forty in the UK All Formats charts.

Yet despite the lacklustre sales performance Schuneman remains optimistic of its shelf life.

"If the sales were there to match that we'd be over the moon, but they're not. Although that doesn't mean we don't believe in the franchise," he added.

With the 4 Kids produced animated series doing well in North America, and just this week launching in Europe, the strength of the cartoon could help reignite sales of a title so far under appreciated by the consumer.

"The TV show has been doing well in North America and it's got pretty good figures," commented Schuneman.

"It launched in the UK this week on Nicktoons and it's due in the rest of Europe later this year. It's a two or three year push, and if after that it's a terrible failure then we'll say fair enough," he concluded.

The full interview with Rare, where the company discusses the next Banjo-Kazooie title, downloadable content and targeting different markets, will be published on GamesIndustry.biz next week.