Phantom Dust Push Came From Fan Tweet

As we reported last Monday, Microsoft announced that they are doing another iteration of Phantom Dust, an original IP released on Xbox which later became a cult hit between gamers.

YouTube channel Rev3Games just released an interview with Avi Ben-Menahem, Executive Producer at Microsoft Game Studios, Ken Lobb and Adam Isgreen, Creative Directors. We learned a few more details on Phantom Dust. An interesting tidbit is that while both Isgreen and Lobb have been pushing to do Phantom Dust again, what prompted Phil Spencer to actually give them the green light is nothing other than a fan tweet asking for it.

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 ahead”

While gameplay details are still scarce, they made it pretty clear that the game will have to be very accessible, unlike the first one (which sold very little), both in terms of pricing and mechanics. Avi said:

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.

Isgreen added that they definitely want to make it easier and faster for people to get into deckbuilding when compared to the original.

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.

More information, along with the name of the development studio, will be revealed in the coming months, but it looks like the original creator (Yukio Futatsugi) will be involved as well.