Buzz! boss "flattered" by MS's Scene It? copycat controller

via Computer and Video Games


The boss of Buzz! developer Relentless Software says he's flattered by the controller accompanying Microsoft's Scene It? Xbox 360 quiz game, which bears a remarkable resemblance to Buzz!'s own big-button peripheral.

"It would be easy for me to poke fun of the similarities, so I won't. What's interesting is that when we first talked about Buzz! people didn't understand why we wouldn't just use the PlayStation controller and saw little value in a bespoke peripheral", David Amor told CVG in the latest instalment in our Creative Minds series when queried about the Scene It? controller.

Quiz series Buzz! has become a multi-million selling franchise on the PS2 platform, and Microsoft is obviously hoping to nab some of the market share with Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action on Xbox 360.

Amor went on to say that since the success of Buzz!, the value of the bespoke controller has been recognised.

"...there are lots of subtle tricks we've learnt to use in the games that make them so playable - it looks very straightforward but you'd be surprised at the things that do and don't work", he explained.

"There's more to it than meets the eye. We've had to 'unlearn' a lot of lessons that are employed in more 'hardcore' games."

Our full interview with David Amor will be hitting the site later this afternoon.