Project delayed to ‘2010’ despite development switching studios to boost performance
The tumultuous next-gen revival of the Splatterhouse franchise has taken another turn for the worse, with the project now confirmed unable to meet its 2009 launch deadline.
Back in February it was discovered that publisher Namco Bandai had pulled the Splatterhouse project from California-based developer BottleRocket. At the time the publisher said it was aware of the poor image such a move would give it, but assured that performance problems had given the company little choice in the matter.
At the time, the Namco Bandai stated that it was committed to launch the Xbox 360 and PS3 title some time in 2009.
However, just a couple of months later, it had emerged that some of BottleRocket’s Splatterhouse team were asked to continue developing the game, with Namco Bandai opening a studio not far from the BottleRocket offices in San Diego and hiring as many as 20 designers, artists and programmers to finish the project.
This reassessment of the Splatterhouse project may not be going as swimmingly as intended. The game – powered by Emergent’s Gamebryo engine – is now delayed until 2010, according to Gamespot. The publisher declined to comment whether the game will be released early or late next year.
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We'll never likely know exactly how badly things have been handled here, unless of course a developer breaks his/her silence.
As Namco shut down development due to performance issues, I'd love to hear a former BottleRocketer discuss, sincerely, how things have 'improved' since.
I'm not advocating dirty public laundry, but think this may provide a lesson in tampering with production.
I call a 30% chance this game won't make gold.
Namco paid for every milestone before moving it from Bottlerocket. Since every milestone was paid, that means that every milestone was APPROVED. If every milestone was approved, how can Namco claim performance issues? Smells fishy, and there isnt a sushi bar in site.
