BottleRocket claims Namco's handling of Splatterhouse was "inept"

Ex-Splatterhouse developer BottleRocket has hit back at Namco claims that there was a "performance issue" regarding the creation of the horror title, saying that it never missed a milestone and that Namco's handling of the project must therefore have been "inept".

BottleRocket said in a statement, published by Gamasutra:

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.

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.

Namco unceremoniously yanked Splatterhouse from BottleRocket earlier this year, giving the game to the in-house Afro Samurai team.