Namco Taps Dropped Staff To Finish Splatterhouse
Some of the developers at BottleRocket Entertainment, a company that referred to Namco Bandai as "inept" after they were dropped from development of Splatterhouse, have been re-recruited to finish work on the seemingly troubled project.
Things got a little nasty [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90286-Ex-Splatterhouse-Dev-Calls-Namco-Inept] a couple months back when Namco shifted development of its Splatterhouse remake from original devs BottleRocket Entertainment, citing a "performance issue" as the reason for the move. BottleRocket, in response, declared that they'd help up their end of the bargain and that "Namco's management of the title was inept."
Well sometimes you have to forgive and forget. According to The Cut Scene [http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2009/04/bottlerocket-devs-recruited-by-namco-to-finish-splatterhouse.html], Namco has opened a new San Diego office and hired 10-20 of the original Splatterhouse staff from BottleRocket to finish work on the game.
This may not have been simply a matter of the two parties getting over their bad blood. From the sound of things, it was a necessity.
For Namco, as The Cut Scene surmises, switching to a brand new team for Splatterhouse and still getting it out this year would have been a challenge. BottleRocket were the only people with the knowledge of the in-progress project's ins and outs to get the job done.
BottleRocket, meanwhile, has been in financial straits, having gained one key project (Scratch: The Ultimate DJ) but having lost two (Splatterhouse and The Flash game). For the staff that BottleRocket couldn't afford to keep around, moving to Namco to finish Splatterhouse could have seemed like a pretty decent proposition.
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Some of the developers at BottleRocket Entertainment, a company that referred to Namco Bandai as "inept" after they were dropped from development of Splatterhouse, have been re-recruited to finish work on the seemingly troubled project.
Things got a little nasty [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90286-Ex-Splatterhouse-Dev-Calls-Namco-Inept] a couple months back when Namco shifted development of its Splatterhouse remake from original devs BottleRocket Entertainment, citing a "performance issue" as the reason for the move. BottleRocket, in response, declared that they'd help up their end of the bargain and that "Namco's management of the title was inept."
Well sometimes you have to forgive and forget. According to The Cut Scene [http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2009/04/bottlerocket-devs-recruited-by-namco-to-finish-splatterhouse.html], Namco has opened a new San Diego office and hired 10-20 of the original Splatterhouse staff from BottleRocket to finish work on the game.
This may not have been simply a matter of the two parties getting over their bad blood. From the sound of things, it was a necessity.
For Namco, as The Cut Scene surmises, switching to a brand new team for Splatterhouse and still getting it out this year would have been a challenge. BottleRocket were the only people with the knowledge of the in-progress project's ins and outs to get the job done.
BottleRocket, meanwhile, has been in financial straits, having gained one key project (Scratch: The Ultimate DJ) but having lost two (Splatterhouse and The Flash game). For the staff that BottleRocket couldn't afford to keep around, moving to Namco to finish Splatterhouse could have seemed like a pretty decent proposition.
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