Ben-DutkaBig fish eating little fish. It's one of the harshest truths of both the animal and business kingdom.
According to Kotaku, the latest rumor is that Namco has yanked the currently incomplete Splatterhouse project from developer Bottlerocket, which would essentially put the California-based studio out of business. Apparently, some sources in the San Diego development community stated that Namco showed up at Bottlerocket HQ on Friday and simply took back all the dev kits and assets for the game. It seems they weren't too happy with the team's progress, and now Namco has supposedly handed it over to their internal team that handled Afro Samurai . Why would Namco wish to take down a developer that's contracted to create a game for them? Well, nobody really knows, but it has to be a colossal pain to remove a game that's nearly complete and be forced to finish it yourself; we're also not sure if Bottlerocket would receive partial credit on this project. Splatterhouse was set to go Gold in early March and it was a last-gasp for the developer. Now, some sources are saying the office has only three months left to operate, and all employees got their last paycheck yesterday.
In our estimation, we just figure that if you can't do the job you've been contracted to do, then the consequences are inevitable. But we certainly don't have the whole story and all of this is just a rumor, so we'll hold off on further speculation.
Related Game(s): Splatterhouse
Damn what did they do wrong?
Hopefully this won't move on to the bone yard or get screwed up somehow with the transition of studios
Loved of the original! Now that its inhouse lets hope for a high quality game.
I was keeping my eye on this one. Looks like a promising PSN title. Gratuitous violence never gets old.
This isn't a PSN title. It is a full retail, BD release.
hahaha DOMINANCE!!!!!
I loved their Mark of The Kri. They were a good developer.
Yeah..Mark of Kri was a great game that was mostly overlooked on the PS2.
The Mark of Kri – yeah sure a fantastic game. I loved it though it was never published in Germany, but I got it from UK. Ok, they did it?…mmmmh now I'm really asking myself: What the hack did they wrong to deserve this? Would be great if you guys can keep an eye on the story, maybe the real reason will be revealed in the next weeks.
so they gave the game to the DEVS of Afro Samurai. well consider the game crap now cuz from what ive read about afro samurai the game had a lot of flaws.
From what I understand, the game was almost finsihed anyway; so I'm sure they can't ruin it entirely.
Afro samurai DID have more than its fair share of gratuitous violence though… and isn't that what we all really want? :p
I played afro samurai and died a little inside.no dev who made afro samurai should be allowed to make games.
If it was set to go gold in march wouldnt you think they would have been giving the time to work until march..then do the progress report before making any rash decisions??But as you said theres definitely more to that story..
Wow, it sucks when anyone gets canned.
I couldn't imagine someone just snatching your work and say your done, that sucks.