Milo's Dead

[Deleted User]

Source

Peter Molyneux's Milo & Kate (Project Milo) has been 'shut down' by Microsoft, according to sources close to the project.

Molyneux had previously admitted that MS was uncomfortable about releasing a game in which you talk to a child throughout - and now it appears the platform holder has taken decisive action.


According to Kotaku's sources, the technology behind the game will now be used in a Fable title for Kinect.

Lionhead ditched incorporation of Kinect controls in Fable III earlier this year.

The site reports that 'a dozen' staff on the game have been laid off due to Microsoft's decision.

Milo & Kate has endured a patchy history at MS. Xbox product director Aaron Greenberg claimed in June that the game - first seen at E3 2009 - would never get a commercial release, but then backtracked on his statement.


In the same month, Microsoft studios boss Phil Spencer suggested that the tech used to power Milo had been implemented into Kinect launch title Kinectimals - something later denied by the game's creative boss, David Braben.

The 'sensitive' nature of Milo's subject matter hasn't been lost on industry observers - including a certain Charlie Brooker.

 

[Deleted_171835]

This was quite confusing.
What is this news topic about? Did Microsoft dump the Milo project?

Edit: Shit. I was actually looking forward to see how this would turn out.

 

[Deleted User]

This was quite confusing.
What is this news topic about? Did Microsoft dump the Milo project?

Yes.

 

[gifi4]

I honestly cannot be bothered reading all this atm lol, bookmarked, will read when I can be bothered.

 

[Hop2089]

This was quite confusing.
What is this news topic about? Did Microsoft dump the Milo project?

It's scrapped

 

[Hadrian]

I'm pretty sure they'll use the tech in something else.

 

[kiafazool]

this is why i like sony

 

[Deleted User]

this is why i like sony

This is why I like Sony

 

[kiafazool]

this is why i like sony

This is why I like Sony

im talking about a project being dropped

who cares about third party controllers

Spoiler

im saying that because i dont have a ps3

 

[Joe88]

it was probably fake just like everyone suspected

since ms has a pretty past of faking / acting

 

[BlueStar]

It was rubbish from the start, I work with voice recognition and there's absolutely no way the video demonstration was on the level.

 

[XtremeCore]

This kind of virtual interaction requires lots and lots of data. It's as good those talking robots that will be the "future house-wife" in Japan, minus the housewife part.

MS and Lionhead probably knew that it's near impossible to squeeze that amount of data on a medium, and the time required to invest in such project is just ridiculous.

Although I was quite excited when I first saw it on last year's E3, I knew that such thing is not possible as of the current technology.

Until low-budget REAL Artificial Intelligence is developed, such thing should just be a science-fiction that exist only in novels, movies and games (I meant the games about artificial intelligence, not gaming artificial intelligence)


Edit: LovePlus is a different thing though.

 

[Saddamsdevil]

That sucks... if this was real this would have been revolutionary. It would stop people from getting lonely if they are locked up in a psycho's house condemned never to leave the room again.

okay, that sounded freaky.

Well, I hope they still share the technology somehow.

 

[Hadrian]

Maybe it was real but the tech involved to pull it off would have made the Kinect cost more so MS ditched it.

 

[Terminator02]

I'm pretty sure they'll use the tech in something else.

I'z been heerin the roomers in th interwebz tht th tch wll b goin to Feybal tres

Edit: but i'm serious

 

[Arnold Schwarzen]

Thought you were referring to to dog actor that played Milo in The Mask but going by dog years he too is probably dead by now

.

 

[Aeladya]

I don't see how it is fake or impossible (it has a dictionary that constantly updates built in, Kinect reads your motions, ect, and if Milo didn't understand he would say so and ask you to repeat it. It wasn't perfect, but I would say pretty plausible, at least in my opinion, but I'm not entirely sure how the technology worked), but I am disappointed that this was canceled, this game was the only reason for me to buy Kinect (eventually when the price went down). I thought it was an interesting idea and I planned on bringing the Xbox 360 with me babysitting and having the kids play with it since I know the kids I watch would have enjoyed this (especially since if I play NSMB Wii again I'm going to go mad).

 

[GeekyGuy]

I was never under the assumption in the first place that Milo would turn into a "finished product." I always perceived it as a demo of what Natal could do -- to give an idea of the possibilities. But yeah, a "game" that involves spending hours talking to a young boy...that would be some creepy shit. Great proof of concept for the hardware, though.