GRIN reveals Square Enix "betrayal"

By Robert Purchese Published 31 May, 2011

Pub wouldn't pay for FFXII spin-off.

Why did Bionic Commando dev Grin close? Because of a "betrayal" by Square Enix, Grin founders Bo and Ulf Andersson claim.

Grin had been working on a Final Fantasy XII spin-off but apparently received no money from Square Enix because agreed milestones weren't met, brothers Andersson told Swedish site Aftonbladet.

Sneakily, the Anderssons - who thought Square Enix unreasonable - used a real screenshot of Final Fantasy XII to test the publisher's accusations that Grin's project didn't fit with the look and feel of the Final Fantasy series. Square Enix apparently gave the same complaint.

The Final Fantasy XII spin-off was codenamed Fortress.

Bo and Ulf Andersson announced that Grin had closed in August 2009. They cited an "unbearable cashflow situation" caused by "too many" publishers delaying their payments.

The Anderssons mentioned an "unreleased masterpiece" that they "weren't allowed" to finish. Was this Fortress?

GRIN has been responsible for Ballistics, Bandits, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter I & II (multiplayer), Bionic Commando Rearmed, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Terminator: Salvation and Bionic Commando.

Bionic Commando.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (32) Latest comment 12 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • lucky_jim #1 12 months ago

    If "agreed milestones weren't met" surely there's nobody to blame but themselves?

  • J0rdan_KZ #2 12 months ago

    I find it slightly dubious that they could have released a 'masterpiece' considering their previous work... :-/

  • Vlad27145 #3 12 months ago

    To their credit BC: Rearmed was pretty good

  • TheDarkFurie #4 12 months ago

    What a coincidence. I wrote the best song ever and recorded it but the owner of the studio wouldn't pay me so I didn't release it. Now I don't use any of the ideas in new songs, merely complaining that I had the best song ever and that despite my other songs not being much cop everyone would have liked my masterpiece.

  • PixelPirate #5 12 months ago

    We didn't do what was in our agreed contract, so they didnt pay us.

    Shocker.

  • LazyNinjaUk #6 12 months ago

    I'd say GRIN's work on GRAW 1 and 2's multiplayer is pretty solid, their work on Terminator Salvation and Wanted on the otherhand was shite. Whether this was because they were movie tie-ins I don't know, still it's always sad to hear a developer close it's doors especially due to publishers being difficult.

  • Golgo #7 12 months ago

    Now I come to think of it, Square-Enix haven't paid me for something I haven't delivered either! BETRAYERS!

  • roquey Verified Lead Quality Assurance Tester and Compliance Specialist, Universally Speaking #8 12 months ago

    Thank god there wasnt a spin off! 12 wasnt that great in my opinion anyway....

  • Mister-Wario #9 12 months ago

    The Final Fantasy XII picture incident was pretty funny.

  • Gastrian #10 12 months ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • Halgwet #11 12 months ago

    You're missing some funny pieces of information from the article. For example, Square Enix used Grin because they wanted to create a Final Fantasy game which had a more nordic style, then they complained that the game was too nordic. Then they requested that Grin fax everything to them, including music files. Also, the milestones weren't met in a "satisfactory manner," which could mean everything from there not being any game to the game being "too nordic". It does seem that Square Enix just wanted out.

  • Olemak #12 12 months ago

    It is rather sad, but a good example of how and why the games industry is changing. Grid had lots of talented people. It fhey had used their talent to develop some of their own IP in a cheap medium, less cashflow dependent - like PC freemium games, or some social plugin thingie, or an app, they'd have something they owned and controlled themselves. There's no guarantee of success there in these markets either, of course, but at least they would be colling the shots themseselves.

    Insted, they just followed the orders of publishers, and that killed them.

  • Kami #13 12 months ago

    If you translate, you'll notice EG missed the best parts;

    1) Square-Enix asked them to FAX their code over. I'd love to have seen them break Square-Enix's fax machine by doing it :p
    2) The screenshot they sent came back with the comment "This looks nothing like Final Fantasy" - thereby showing SE as either a company with a VERY short memory, or a company that had no intention of liking anything they did.
    3) The phonecall from SE saying they were "thinking" of pulling out of the contract.

    I don't doubt for a second that GRIN had problems of its own and were behind schedule. But then, it's SE's licence - why act like idiots over it? Other companies handle schedule issues much better than this...

  • Inmediasress #14 12 months ago

    @Kami
    Yeah I read the complete article on another site and yes it does seem that Square Enix just wanted to screw them over really really hard. I think they changed their mind midway and wouldn't wanted to break the contract so they broke them instead with ridiculous demands.
    Edited by Inmediasress at 31/05/11 @ 12:23

  • darleysam #15 12 months ago

    Yeah, what Kami said, people seem to be the "sent them a screenshot of FFXII, to be told that it didn't look like a Final Fantasy game".
    That makes it sound like SE were just going to reject anything GRIN did, however it turned out.

  • el_pollo_diablo #16 12 months ago

    I really quite enjoyed Wanted although I could never quite work out why.

  • Golgo #17 12 months ago

    In partial defence of Square-Enix. re. the photo issue shenanigans: they're right, FF12 does not look like a FF game.

    / *chortle*

  • yoomazir #18 12 months ago

    tech demo of that Fortress project :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1lQeYjceLc

  • roz123 #19 12 months ago

    They should just grin and bare it

  • HL706 #20 12 months ago

    "Thank god there wasnt a spin off! 12 wasnt that great in my opinion anyway..."

    I agree, but compared to 13 it was an epic masterpiece of a game!

  • Haunted_Tree #21 12 months ago

    Every parent thinks their child's crayon drawing is a "masterpiece".

  • kinth #22 12 months ago

    bionic commando was a guilty pleasure.

    but everything else they ahve released has been trash to be honest.

    but them showing SE a picture of ff12 and SE telling them it doesnt match the look and feel of FF12 is kinda bad, shows SE had no intention of taking the game on anyway.

    though most FF spinoff are terrible so im glad its not released.

  • Raz76 #23 12 months ago

    Wow, this is a really shoddy news story.

    Aftonbladet isn't a Swedish "site", it's a tabloid newspaper with a circulation of 1,5 million.

    They don't say in the article it was a FFXII spinoff, just that it was a FF spinoff.

    The brothers said that the milestones WERE met, and had been assured as much by mail, but that SE later said they had sent them to the wrong persons, and that the legal department should have had them too.

    And you omitted the part where SE asked for the entire code to be sent by fax, including music files.

  • dagas #24 12 months ago

    "– Allt det där kom som en efterhandskonstruktion. Innan var det aldrig några problem. Vi hade levererat ett antal milstolpar. Som vi hade per mejl fått godkänt av en producent."

    - All that was something that was invented after the fact. Before (the bankruptcy) it was never a problem. We had delivered on a number of milestones which via email were confirmed by a producer.

  • spekkeh #25 12 months ago

    So seems like they had a good case for a lawsuit on their hands, does it say why they didn't pursue this?

  • RobTheBuilder #26 12 months ago

    Einhander still hasn't been released in any form in Europe, join the Squeenix slowpoke complaint queue...

  • Kami #27 12 months ago

    My guess from the tone of the article - they didn't have any money left to fight a lawsuit against a company with far deeper pockets than their own. Grin VS Square-Enix.

    Even if Grin had the money, can you imagine the press? Square-Enix are the darlings of the gaming community, put on a pedestal with so many heads wedged up their back passage it makes the Tardis look positively cramped. Grin would be the bad evil people - the gaming press and community would have torn them asunder. Which would have also, eventually, killed them off as a company. The developer who took on Square-Enix.

    For Grin, it seems like rock met hard place and whatever they did, they would lose. I do have some sympathies for that - but ultimately, they didn't keep track of their finances and walked blindly into a "too good to be true" contract without realising that if it all went badly wrong, they would be the ones to suffer. That's not clever business sense and it doomed them.

    Of course, Square-Enix shouldn't be let off the hook either for their behaviour - it should be a warning at how they will treat projects they don't have full control over, or want to get rid of. But there was only going to be one loser in this battle - and they've already lost. C'est la vie.

  • Raz76 #28 12 months ago

    "So seems like they had a good case for a lawsuit on their hands, does it say why they didn't pursue this? "

    Yeah, it says specifically that they didn't have the money for a legal battle. Bo Andersson is also quoted as saying that he "suffered from revenge feelings" after they closed.

    "Bröderna övervägde att stämma förläggaren men insåg snart att en rättsprocess skulle kunna stå dem dyrt."
    - The brothers considered suing the publisher but soon had to realise that a court process could be expensive for them". (edited in)
    Edited by Raz76 at 31/05/11 @ 14:38

  • ruddiger7 #29 12 months ago

    Hypocritical of square to say that after releasing crap after ff12 that doesnt have the ff feel.

    But still they shouldve met the milestones

  • Kami #30 12 months ago

    FF12 wasn't bad actually - technically brilliant, it just lacked soul. Like a german car, really, you just long for that Italian sense of impending doom... :p

    And it did feel like a FF game. At least, I thought it did... but then, FF changes every installment anyway. What IS "Final Fantasy" Style?
    Edited by Kami at 31/05/11 @ 16:23

  • Laythe_AD #31 12 months ago

    I'd argue Final Fantasy 12 was the first great game in the series, since the PS1 days. Then people went "omg, innovation, originality, and attempts are more mature characters! Hate Hate Hate!.

    Meanwhile, 10, was pretty poor, and 13 was god awful.

  • evnewell #32 12 months ago

    let's be honest, If Square can't make a decent FF game, what chance does Grin have? I think we're better off without this release. Hey grin, what passes for a masterpiece? Would you call Bionic Commando a masterpiece - just want to get an idea of where you set the bar - might help explain a few things.

    Meanwhile,a proper bionic commando was developed in another region of Europe and dubbed Just Cause 2 - that was a masterpiece.