Sony working on Viva Bonsai
Non-creativity at its best
Apparently they didn’t have enough with the analog sticks, the vibration, the dashboard button or the motion-sensitive technology implemented in their controllers. A quick look at their recent history shows how much Sony likes the idea of using others as a reference to ensure their own success based on what their competition has done right. Pretty much what every company in the planet does, like when Microsoft virtually copied the Eye Toy with rather poor results. But in Sony’s case these manoeuvres are way more common. When it comes about games, usually they just buy the rights or developers decide to launch their titles also for the PS3 because Sony’s consoles tend to be quite popular everywhere. That’s how we got Lost Planet, Resident Evil 4 or Bioshock also for Sony platforms, when it looked like they were going to be exclusive titles of other companies.
Now they took a new step in this very same direction. What happens when you want a game for your platform but that game is developed by a first party of your direct competition? You can’t get the publishing rights nor ask the developer to make another version for your console. So you just copy it and name it differently. That’s probably why they greenlighted downloadable game Shikitei, supposedly something like “four seasons garden,” developed by Premium Agency and set to be released next June 26th only in Japan. The goal will be to design and take care of a garden, which eventually will be visited by different animals depending on how great it is. It will also feature the course of time in form of seasons, day and night. Oh, and a growing encyclopaedia that can be consulted at any time. Sounds familiar, huh?
Oddly enough, the title was designed to be watched instead of played. Premium Agency is a company specialized in movie contents, and producer Rie Nakamura stated that there won’t be any gaming elements on Shikitei. Even the idea of having weeds appear in the gardens if users didn’t take care of them was scratched out for some weird reason. What’s the point of building the garden, then? Why not just buy the whole thing at once instead of having users looking at the screen for no reason, waiting for something else to happen… or not? At least they thought about adding different types of gardens, like Western and Japanese at the beginning, which could be followed by Egyptian or Indian, among others. One cool thing out of a dozen, but the upcoming Viva Piñata Trouble in Paradise will also feature new landscapes anyway.
Somehow related news
- Rare working on two unannounced projects ()
- Reggienator wants 007 on Wii ()
- Martin Hollis would like to see GoldenEye on the Virtual Console ()
- Burton claims that we’ll see both new and old IP from Rare ()
- Franchises touched by Rare grace enter 20 top-selling list ()
2 Comments
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Comment by Beautiful Bonsai — 24.Jun.08 @ 9:17 am
It couldn’t possibly be as complex as Viva Pinata – at least I don’t think so. You’ve got to strike the right balance with your animals in VP, but here I’m assuming they just come in and stay, depending on what you put in?
Both games are gardening sims, at a basic level. So they’re both inspired by nature; it’s just that Rare’s done something more clever with it (pretty much creating their own creatures and plants), allowing you to customise absolutely everything. Plus you’ve got the fantastic artistic style, which gives it real character.
Sony’s game looks pretty, but because it’s realistic, it comes over as trying too hard to look like the real garden. And it can never look as nice as a real garden. Viva Pinata on the other hand, creates it’s own unique style… a fantasy world that sets itself apart from the real outdoors. Which is the way to go, I think!
Comment by SummerSky — 05.Jun.08 @ 3:46 pm