Microsoft Wants the Radiant Silvergun

Not as a weapon of mass destruction, but for an unforgettable Saturn shooter turned Xbox Live Arcade title by the folks at Treasure. But does Treasure want to play ball?

For gamers seeking only the best for their Sega Saturn library, Treasure’s 1998 shooter, Radiant Silvergun, can always be found at the top of the list. For the developers at Treasure there seems to be no refuge from the endless demand for remakes and licensed titles, despite having built their popularity on original games. With the success of Ikaruga on Xbox Live Arcade, its no surprise that Microsoft is enthusiastic about bringing its inspiration to the downloadable space as well. Treasure CEO Masato Maegawa, however, isn’t so excited about the idea.

In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Maegawa mentioned that Microsoft had asked the legendary developer to craft a remake of Radiant Silvergun for Xbox Live Arcade, though they’ve yet to decide whether or not to do it.

“I’d definitely like to see it out there,” said Maegawa. “But the situation around that game is a bit different from Ikaruga, so I don’t know if we’d see it on [Xbox Live]. In the case of Ikaruga, there was very little work that needed to be done on the core of the game itself. Being a modern day shooter, the visuals were already impressive enough on their own and could stand up to today’s standards. Being a 3-D shooter from the Sega Saturn era, Radiant Silvergun doesn’t have that luxury.

“[If] you play Radiant Silvergun nowadays, it’s certainly aged in assorted ways, and I’m not sure they’re all good,” laughed Maegawa.

While the idea of Radiant Silvergun making its way to XBLA has delighted shooter fans, it has enraged them all the same. In March 2008, Famitsu conducted an interview with Masaki Sakari of Japanese publisher 5pb who were currently in the process of porting over the highly revered Cave shooters Dodonpachi Daioujou and Ketsui to the Xbox 360. Sakari revealed that it had originally turned to Microsoft, offering the titles for Xbox Live Arcade, but were rejected as the Redmond giant wished to cut down on straight arcade ports. In an act of defiance (or insanity, some would argue), 5pb then turned the projects into retail products under the Black Label X moniker, essentially cutting off all but those consumers who own Japanese Xbox 360’s.

To see Microsoft welcome Treasure’s ancient wares with open arms but turn their backs to other, equally impressive shooters for the XBLA platform is baffling, though to be fair, their request from Treasure most likely came along with an additional one to improve the visuals, which 5pb did not wish to do. In the end, more hardcore shooters released in the west is always a welcomed sight.