Rare: GoW took Viva Piata'a marketing cash

In an interview with Gamasutra, James Thomas and Justin Cook (two members of Rare's development team) talked about the history of Viva Piñata and how hard it has been targeting a new family-IP to the stereotypically hardcore Xbox 360 gamers. Specifically, Thomas mentioned that last Fall, publisher Microsoft Game Studios left little in the Viva Piñata marketing bank and instead sunk more focus and effort into their new Gears of War franchise. Thomas commented saying that,

"So much of the [marketing] money went towards Gears of War, which is going to sell millions anyway. It was a bit of like, 'What about the other franchise?' I think we got left in the wake somewhat."

Here at X3F we've always been enthusiastic about Viva Piñata and give it nothing but praise. But, even for us, trying to get other gamers to try the game is a bit of a task seeing that it is somewhat nontraditional. Maybe Microsoft didn't do a good job at marketing it and maybe Gears of War was more important last year, but we have confidence in their commitment to bringing the somewhat under-achieving Viva Piñata franchise into focus again ... heck, we've got BK toys to prove it.