Once upon a time people discussed the idea of Wii60, a melding of the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii consumer bases.
In more recent times games such as “Shadowrun” promoted the idea of 360-PC connectivity.
But what would you say about the unholy marriage of the Nintendo DS and Xbox 360?
The developers at Microsoft’s Rare games studio tested it and one of them told me that they’ve gotten it to work.
But you won’t be playing it.
Here’s why…
“Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise” is one of the 360’s big fall games. It’s the Rare follow-up to the well-reviewed gardening strategy game, a game that was way more graphically impressive, cartoonishly violent and fun than it sounds.
The new “Viva Pinata” game features more creatures, more terrain and an interesting photo feature. The game supports the Xbox Live Vision Camera, which is used to scan patterned codes off of “Viva Pinata” character trading cards. The scanned data unlocks in-game pinata characters.
During a demo of the game last week at Microsoft’s San Francisco showcase event, “Trouble In Paradise” designer Justin Cook mentioned that the camera feature also works with card codes that are displayed on the video screens on objects such as iPods or Zunes. Just hold them up to the camera while they display a proper “Pinata” image and they should work.
When he mentioned that, it got me thinking…
Had Microsoft been craftier than we’d all thought? Had I unearthed a brilliant plot?
Microsoft has had trouble getting the kids market that Nintendo so effectively courts to buy kid-friendly Xbox 360 games, such as “Viva Pinata.” The DS is popular with kids. Rare just announced this month that a version of “Viva Pinata” for the DS has just been completed. The “VP” game on the DS seems like the perfect agent to sell the series to those Nintendo kids. And now, with this camera feature in the 360 sequel, Microsoft has a way to connect DS “Pinata” gamers to Xbox 360s, for actual gameplay incentives.
[UPDATE at 3:10PM EST: In case it wasn't clear, the way this would work would be that the DS would display an image that had the card-code on it. The gamer would hold it up to the Xbox camera, as they can an iPod, and the photo feature would snap away -- voila! DS-360 connectivity.]
Very crafty.
So, thinking I’d figured it all out, I asked Cook: Is “Viva Pinata DS” going to connect to the new “Viva Pinata” on the Xbox 360?
“We got it to work, but it was too late in the development cycle,” Cook said, presumably talking about the cycle of the DS game. If only they’d thought of it sooner, he laughed. “It’s one of those things where you just kick yourself.”
And that, Multiplayer readers, is how close the world got to the very first instance of DS60…. 36DS?….XboNDs? It doesn’t matter. It’s not happening.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Wow, that’s some pretty epic potential. I’m very surprised that the DS doesn’t require some sort of proprietary Nintendo software/hardware to communicate with a console. Do you guys have any sense on this?
May 20th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
@Akashhhhh:
The article says “the camera feature also works with card codes that are displayed on the video screens on objects such as iPods or Zunes” , so I assume the DS version would display an image which the xbox camera would take a picture of , not the DS itself connecting to the 360.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I doubt Nintendo would have allowed it to be honest.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
How about MS and Nintendo do the decent thing and sucker punch Sony, MS need a handheld console and Nintendo needs a decent audience in the area above family/kiddies they want to be a player in the serious gamer market too, how about a Xbox 360/Wii/DS/Xbox Live hookup that leverages the power of both platforms? Whilst PS3 try to get a real online gaming experiencegoing on.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
TO JBFLETCHER:
I doubt there would be any objection between Nintendo and Microsoft for doing this. Nintendo is already allowing the Microsoft Series onto the DS. The connectivity is not actually between the hardware but between the DS Game and the Xbox hardware. The content within the game would be the link between the communication by using the Xbox Live Vision Camera. The camera would just read the image on the game then the 360 game would process the action to allow access to the appropriate pinata.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I would love to see this happen, nintendo and microsoft share certain things and destroy sony, I’m going to buy a DS if nintendo and microsoft allow this.
May 21st, 2008 at 5:48 pm
My question is can you download you files from VP1?
May 21st, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Is anyone goin to anser mi question
May 21st, 2008 at 6:09 pm
@Fearn
You’re not giving anyone much time, are you?
I can’t recall how they answered that question at the event I covered last week. I do remember them saying that the cards and camera would provide one way for bring VP1 content into VP2. But I don’t have anything in my notes about whether they said players would or wouldn’t be able to import their VP1 gardens and pinatas in to the sequel.
Sorry.