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Frontier Developments founder David Braben has commented on rumours suggesting the group’s newest game Kinectimals is directly related to Lionhead’s project Milo.
Yesterday, Official Xbox magazine ran a story with the headline: ‘Milo & Kate tech went into Kinectimals’.
The news piece was published after the popular games magazine conducted a full interview with Microsoft Game Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer.
While the news report itself carried no direct claim that Milo’s tech would be used in Kinectimals – though there were perhaps some hints – the publication’s unambiguous headline suggested the magazine’s staff had more info on the subject than what was published in the news article. (The story went to press when questions loomed over the direction and future of the Milo project.)
Speaking to Develop, Braben said: “I just feel that Phil’s comments have been taken out of context. Kinectimals has been in development at Frontier for quite some time. We were actually working on the project before we all saw Milo for the first time”.
Spencer told Official Xbox that Milo’s technology “is stuff that we’re still incubating back in the studios” – presumably a reference to Microsoft Game Studios, of which Frontier Developments is not part of.
Spencer was quoted as saying: “I think Lionhead has always been a great place, and the nice thing about Peter [Molyneux] as MGS Creative Director in Europe is you start to see some of those ideas around Milo also showing up in other places, so Kinectimals is actually done at Frontier.”
Braben, who is a keen fan of Lionhead and the Milo project, said: “I think the spirit of what Phil is saying is that Microsoft will look at sharing ideas in the future, which of course is a great thing. But Milo and Kinectimals are two separate games. All games have similarities.”
Meanwhile, Xbox Live Group Manager Aaron Greenberg has carefully hinted that the Milo project is, contrary to what he said 24 hours prior, a commercial project.
