Man, I would really like to know just what happened here.

Indeed, it's very he said, she said. One could infer that Namco's desire to be 100% clear might even mean the opposite, or at least the studio suspected something besides the stated reason.

Agreed. Everything right now is hearsay, however, this could also just be an example of mis communication with U.S. Devs and a Japanese Publisher that I'm sure has happened in the past. Personally, I thought the trailer that BottleRocket put out was very impressive and I'm a huge fan of the Mark of Kri games. I'm wondering if the "performance" had to do with art asset's visuals or if it was more of a gameplay thing..

From the sound of it... it seems like Namco/Bandia couldn't quite figure out how to pull off recreating Splatterhouse, so the contracted Bottlerocket to work on the title. After Bottlerocket set the foundations of the game, Namco decided to find any reason to pull the contract so they can finish developement in house and cut costs of the game. Bottlerocket got screwed. But it's all business.

Michael couldn't have said it better. Having seen the game in action, I'm sure the Japanese developers (who honestly tend to have bitter relations with American developers) figured this game wasn't going to be a major unit-shifting IP. Sadly, I assume BottleRocket truly met all their milestones, but I think Namco realized that they were better off cutting their losses and finishing it in house thereby saving as much money as possible on this project. I really feel bad for BottleRocket and their employees. I could only image how awful it would be to work on a project for almost a year and a half and have it taken away. And whats almost even worse, Namco added insult to injury by implying they weren't working hard enough to meet the contractual milestones. Especially with the hard financial times we live in, this is truly a sad story.

Mr. Iwai san stated in the previous interview that Namco was trying to catch up to Capcom and Sega as far as International hits are concerned. As far as Michael's assesment, this could be true, but it might not be a bitter relationship thing, like william said. It could indeed be a "cost" thing though. Japan's game devs get paid a LOT less than their US counterparts, especially in the art department side of things. Once the game engine, design, are core play mechanics are done, I guess it makes business sense to finish the game in Japan. Also, if the script and audio recording is done, Namco won't have to localize the game in Japan, which is hard to pull off.

Innnnnnnnnnnnteresting, to say the least. It'll be just that in terms of how the finished product turns out. While I get Rodney's point above, wouldn't it be a hell of a lot more reasonable (and smarter) for Namco Bandai to just say "thanks for your effort - we'll take over now" rather than using "performance reasons" as a way to get their game back? I guess the truth will come out eventually, but it really stinks whatever the circumstances when a project gets pulled away from a developer that's worked on it for so long.

Amusingly enough, the average Joe Gamer generally doesn't care about this sort of backroom politics regarding game development - he'd rather whine about release dates and such, never really knowing some of the reasons games are delayed/canned are more intriguing than some of the games themselves!

Hehe. I actually prefer it when games get delayed rather than rushing them out the door to meet release dates. Not enough games these days go through enough play testing and it shows. GOD OF WAR 2 and MGS 4 spent weeks in grueling playtesting and as a result, those games were polished to perfection.

What I am curious about is whether NAMCO will cater the new SPLATTERHOUSE to Japan or the US. What I mean is in terms of game design. For example, I can always tell I'm playing a Japanese action game, when I've got to do a lot of backtracking and fight the same bosses(albeit with a slightly different texture.), and I unlock secret "costumes" and such. Things like that. Are they going for a CAPCOM-like "feel" of the game, or will they steer it towards something like PRINCE OF PERSIA or some US/EUR counterpart. Will the game be heavily scripted(lots of cutscenes and such.) or will it be a strait up action game?