Microsoft's revival of Rare's fighting series, Killer Instinct, will be a launch game for the Xbox One. Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer told me Killer Instinct is "being overseen by people who are really core to that franchise," and suggested the developer, Double Helix Games, was getting a "bad rap" for its recent history of movie-licensed games.

"I think the developer is getting a little bad rap around this game," Spencer said. "We found a developer who really cares about the game. They're building a great game at 60 frames per second."

Though it seems to have coalesced into a real product made purely from recurring internet wishes, Killer Instinct is practically seen as an ambassador for Xbox One's improvements to online matchmaking. "Obviously, multiplayer is pretty core to what the game is right now, but when you think about asynchronous matchmaking, and I don't know if it really came across [during Microsoft's media briefing], but while you're playing your match, your next fight is being set up. So, you're literally just carousel-ing from fight to fight. A fighting game, given its round-based nature and how long the rounds are, is a great opportunity to showcase the asynchronous matchmaking."

Of course, that isn't to say Twitter had no participation in the matter. "And then, yes, my Twitter feed is always lit up with, you know, there are a few games - Crackdown being one, Killer Instinct being another. When are you going to do this game? Everyone thought there was going to be a Kameo 2, or ... I don't get a lot of Brute Force 2."

Posted: Jun 12, 2013 12:31 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/11/killer-instinct-to-launch-alongside-xbox-one/