Microsoft’s purchase of Twisted Pixel “made sense to both parties”, says Bear

By Stephany Nunneley

Twisted Pixel’s chief creative officer Josh Bear has said the acquisition of the firm by Microsoft just “made sense” to both parties.

Speaking in an interview with Gamasutra, Bear said being under the Microsoft umbrella will provide the stufio with the potential to do more than just downloadable titles in the future.

“We obviously have a great deal of love for downloadable XBLA releases,” he said, “but I think what you will see from us in the future are just great games regardless of the distribution method.

“Maybe they will be XBLA, maybe they will be retail. I think it will just come down to the idea and what we want to do with it. Microsoft has been great about letting us fit in where we need to, which I think was shown with The Gunstringer which was originally XBLA, but turned into a retail title later in development.”

Bear also said there’s the possibility that the firm could develop another Kinect title such as The Gunstringer, but like he said regarding distribution methods, it will “depend on the idea.”

“Working with Kinect on The Gunstringer was a fun ride, and we are glad that it turned out as well as it did, especially with a short time frame and never having worked with the hardware before,” he said. “As for future titles for Kinect, I think it will depend on the idea. If we have concepts that can only be done on the Kinect platform, or will be that much more fun without a controller, then I am sure we would jump at it.

“What we don’t want to do is make something for Kinect just to make it, it has to make sense for the game. I think Microsoft understands that as well and wants to make sure Kinect experiences are vastly different than what you could do with a controller.”

As for what the firm is working on next, Bear said information on the project will be revealed “in the coming months.”

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