Indie studio Bottlerocket has hit back at Namco Bandai’s assertion the Splatterhouse project was pulled from them over a ”performance issue.”
Bottlerocket says they are themsevles accountable if they fail to meet objectives, but they’re adamant they had ”not missed any contractually defined milestones.” Namco’s management ”was inept.”
”The only reason why publishers pull the project out from the developer is when the developer isn’t really meeting the requirements,” Namco Bandai Games’ COO Makoto Iwai told Gamasutra last week. ”I just want to be 100 percent clear. There was a performance issue.”
Bottlerocket have decided to refute Namco’s stance that they are to blame for the project getting pulled. ”We too have to be careful of what we say since publishers have to worry about their ‘image’ and will sue small, independent studios who bark back at them too loudly,” said their company statement.
”Game development contracts are put in place to protect the publisher and their interests. Within these contracts are a series of defined game development objectives and goals called milestones. If a developer is under performing they tend to fail these milestones and have varying degrees of accountability placed upon them.”
”Splatterhouse had been in development for over eighteen months and up to having the title taken away from us we had not missed any contractually defined milestones. So either there were no performance issues during that timeframe or Namco’s management of the title was inept,” continued Bottlerocket.
A case of lazy indie, or silly publisher… ? You the public must decide justice, vote now!
