Grounding's Yukio Futatsugi has spoken of his initial shock at Microsoft's decision to can the original and finished version of Crimson Dragon as it asked him to prepare it afresh as an Xbox One launch title.

Crimson Dragon was announced as part of Microsoft's last significant wave of Japan-developed exclusives at the Tokyo Game Show in 2011, when it was known as Project Draco. Since then it's kept a low profile - despite a temporary leak on Xbox Live - and was assumed AWOL.

Microsoft revealed earlier this year that it had become an Xbox One launch title, and whereas the first pass of Crimson Dragon leant heavily on Kinect the new version allows players to use a more traditional controller.

"When we announced the 360 version we had a lot of people saying why can't we use the controller - so we could not ignore those fans," said a smiling Futatsugi in an interview with Eurogamer at Tokyo Game Show.

"And we couldn't really do Kinect only, so we had to rethink the strategy, and so we centred on the controller but kept some Kinect features."

In the Xbox One's Crimson Dragon, players can guide a partner dragon by leaning their body, while elsewhere free roaming sections have been introduced for boss battles. With gamepad controls reinstated, the link between Crimson Dragon and Futatsugi's past Panzer Dragoon games is stronger than ever.

Microsoft made the decision to make the switch at E3 last year, where it notified Futatsugi. "We were talking about these things in a hotel room and was told this news. I was shocked, but you know ultimately I think it's worked out well - though I won't forget that episode."

Despite the initial shock, Futatsugi's happy for the new higher-profile opportunity. "When we're creating a launch title, that's a great challenge and is worthwhile to work on," he said. "To be able to create a launch title with Crimson Dragon, well I was initially surprised but at the same time I thought that this is some really worthwhile work to do - so that's how I felt."

Crimson Dragon's a download-only title that costs $19.99 (UK price wasn't available at the time of writing) - and since its move to the Xbox One it's been significantly lengthened, with the RPG elements expanded upon to accommodate the more lengthy play sessions associated with traditional gamepad play.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-09-20-why-was-the-original-crimson-dragon-canned

This has now become my most wanted game on Xbox One.

This just proves that microsoft don't care about supporting their past consoles when they release their new consoles. Microsoft must seriously hate supporting their old consoles and outdated.

Or could it just be that using a better kinect, not forcing the developer to only use kinect but also giving them the freedom to use both controls and letting them expand the game to make it better including evelating the game as a launch game for their brand new console.  Since games are still being made for the 360 from MS own studios, I do not see what the problem is.

This is a smart move on MS since the game uses Kinect, probably smarter to use the best piece of hardware.  Could be the same reason Ryse also was moved to X1 and probably a other games that uses Kinect as well.

Is it just me or do people look for the negative in a situation before they think about the positives.  As with any decisions their are pros and cons.  From the developer standpoint he says its a Pro. Maybe that should be the deciding factor for what system a game get released on I would think.

Yeah but why don't they atleast try supporting past consoles to make transitioning easier to next generation and plus this will give consumers a bad taste in the mouth like how nintendo practically dropped support for the wii and that soured my relationship deeply with them. 

Just like Sony, you have periods of a bunch of games coming out and then not so much because of development schedules.  In the last 2 years MS has went from a few development studios to about 20.  These studios can only do so much and they can only working on so many titles depending on their size.  This year, Sony brought out a lot of games from their studios but very little for their the PS4.  MS on the other hand did the opposite.

Probably timming is more the situation than anything else as next year, there probably will be little coming out from Sony for the PS3 while MS has a few titles and maybe more lined up for the 360.  MS stated they will be supporting the 360 for 3 more years so lets see what type of support that is.

They both don't have any killer apps such as halo or gt so what makes you think that investing in new consoles will automatically yield a huge boost in sales ?

I would like to point out that many of the games MS will be bringing for their new console over the next 12 months are actually NOT first party developed games. Out of the 24 exclusive games, timed or otherwise, only about 8 of them are actually developed by Microsoft Studios. The rest are third party developed games. Some are published by MS, others are not. If you're referring to Xbox One launch titles it's obviously even less. Only 3 or 4 games are developed by Microsoft first party studios. Sony currently has 4 exclusives from their first-party teams with more to yet be announced for Year One. We've only heard about 12 of the 20 exclusive Sony-published games. With 8 of them left, you can be sure a few others will be first party developed. As for launch this year, Sony has about the same number of first-party developed games coming which is 3, making it equal or close to the same number of MS games.

I am of the opinion that if its exclusive it doesn't matter if it first party. I am not sure if it really matters if a game is first party.  Sony have a few studios making games for their platform that are 3rd party but gamers still see those games as part of the exclusives they look for in the platform.

@Bolded:  MS has 20 studios now, and you only heard about 5 coming out for the X1.  Just like Sony, there are plenty of first party games probably in development that MS will stagger their release.  Also MS isn't shy about getting top notch studios to product exclusives games.  When all is said and done, I am not sure if a gamer cares if a game is first, 2nd or Third party.  If its exclusive and its a good game, it increases the wealth of purchasing that system.

Not sure what point you are making.  A new console needs support.  It cannot rely on 3rd party studios alone the OEM needs to have their own games which are definitely going to be exclusive and separate the new console from the competition.  You say neither have killer apps, well I disagree.  Both have games coming that consumers believe are killer apps.  Those games might not be killer for you or I but then again, I am not purchasing either on launch.