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As you may have heard already, Microsoft announced at E3 2014 that a Phantom Dust reboot is currently in the works. The original game is an Xbox exclusive that came out back in 2005 for North America. The company didn’t reveal a whole lot about this new iteration at the event, but we did manage to learn a few details thanks to a recent interview. Executive Producer Avi Ben-Menahem and Creative Directors Ken Lobb and Adam Isgreen spoke with Rev3Games about the upcoming title.
It seems that Isgreen and Lobb have been pushing the idea of a Phantom Dust reboot to Phil Spencer for quite a while. However, the head of Microsoft’s Xbox division only took it into consideration when a fan sent him a tweet in which he was asking for the game. “Somebody in the world – we should thank them – sends the first tweet to Phil, which started this push towards Phil of Phantom Dust. And, you know, Phil is right down the hall from where I sit, he comes by again and he’s like, “Phantom Dust, you’re always asking me about Phantom Dust! Maybe we should do that again” and I’m like “Adam already has the spec – we can do that right now!” “Okay, go.”
Phantom Dust didn’t sell very good in the US, which is why it remained somewhat unknown until this very day. Microsoft says that they’re going to make the game more accessible this time around both in terms of gameplay mechanics and pricing. The deck building aspect in particular was considered somewhat clunky in the original. The company will be reworking it in order to allow for an easier path to the game’s main experience.
“We want to make the game approachable. It’s a hardcore game, but we still want to make it as accessible as possible to as many people as we can, while on the same time keeping the depth. Right down to the pricing model, our commitment is to make sure that pricing will not stand between the users and the game. One of the things that was tough in Phantom Dust, it was like 3 and a half hours before you could actually build the deck! We want to make sure that there’s a much easier path to get people into deckbuilding and get to the fun of arsenals etc; we want to get them into that experience sooner.”
