Namco explains BottleRocket ousting Comments by Oli Welsh

Woooah - odd page layout on this empty article

Apologies. I blame Mondays.

Maybe the developer blamed Mondays too.

Shame, but if the publisher had to take action to that extend it must've been really, really bad.

DFawkes - Or the publisher set unrealistic targets that were impossible to meet. So far we've only heard from one side...

Or more likely the Afto Samurai team finished their game and rather than have their in-house developers sat around doing nothing Namco dumped Bottle Rocket on "performance" grounds so they could save money finishing the game in-house.

'Performance issue' is probably Namco trying to soften the blow somewhat. Anybody who has seen the preview shots BottleRocket released would be pretty worried about the direction the game had been taken in. It looked bad, really bad. Golden Axe Beast Riders bad. Actually it looked even worse than that.

From Joystiq.com:

When approached for comment on the situation, Bottlerocket told us that, "Last Friday, Namco showed up with a U-Haul truck, took all their assets (dev kits, etc.) and informed management that the title was being pulled from Bottlerocket."

It didnt look too bad. Rick's animation was pretty impressive, looking like a more frightingly agile and animalistic Hulk and the limb removal gameplay seemed interesting enough to seperate it from the litany of God of War clones. Bottlerocket were behind the rather magnificent Mark of Kri (Which was a God of War predecessor and woefully ignored by the masses due to its Disney/Don Bluth style art. Its still one of the most vicious and brutal video games you can get a hold of today though so try pick it up cheap in CeX or somewhere) and less impressive but still rather worthy Rise of the Kasai so it had pedigree behind it. Shame they were booted off, interested what Namco's internal team can do though. Afro Samurai got the best ever 5/10 review in EDGE so its gonna be something.

Edit: @BBIAJ

Wow, thats a massive dick move on Namco's part. I wonder what happened there.

There's saying in software development. Out of

Good Quality
Fast performance
Delivered on time

you can only pick 2.


Which is why many big games suffer delays.

""The team did a great job with the limited amount of time," Iwai said. "And, so, the result is that it's not really a 100 per cent achievement, but it's still receiving repeat orders. I was not really happy to see some brutal reviews."

Jezus, look in the mirror and say that again without bursting out in laughter Iwa. Delaying a game isn't a crime.

I don't know anything about the specific case in hand, so all my comments are general.


"There's saying in software development. Out of
Good Quality
Fast performance
Delivered on time
you can only pick 2"

That sort of thing always makes me kind of cringe, 'cos we bloody well should be able to pick all 3. The reason we can't is because the games industry is still learning how to run after all these years.

Its not "creative" to not be able to finish a game on time, to the spec that was initially laid out, and within budget. It is simply poor project management.


"Jezus, look in the mirror and say that again without bursting out in laughter Iwa. Delaying a game isn't a crime."

Well its not a crim,e but neither should it be viewed as "ok". Making games shouldn't be some random art form. If a dev agrees a budget, timeframe and series of quality milestones with a publisher there is no good reason why they shouldn't be able to stick to them.

I am NOT saying that slippage is automatically the devs fault, as publishers can cock things up just as easily as anyone, but if the initial plan a decent one (and that includes a factor of safety to cover the unexpected) it is simply NOT ok if a game is delayed for no proper reason (lack of planning doesn't count as a proper reason).

"Once again, Kangaroo hits the nail on the head."

Only he slightly missed the point Mentalist(air) was makeing.

The issue isn't limited to games development, its all software development. Furthermore its not limited to the software industry. How many times do you hear about a building development run way over time / budget.

Other industries are far more mature than the Software one and because of this, in general, they are better meeting all their targets, the sofware industry is still catching up.

Unfortunatly there are lessons that can be learnt which the industry seems a little stubborn (as a whole) to take on board, but things seem to be getting better.

"But then, you are ignoring all the developers out there who CAN get games out on time and on budget."

No I wasn't. I was just pointing out that blasting game developers for running overtime and or budget is wrong in comparison to not only the software industry as a whole but also other industries that are far better established.

I am by no means saying Namco were wrong (none of us can really make reliable comments since we don't know the facts). If they feel they had good grounds to shift development teams then thats fair play.

Certainly not every development team that 'requests' an extended budget and/or development period should be granted it, but I also believe that Microsofts rigidity (as one example) has left us with some games that would have been a more pleasant experience.

@CountFapula and Pickster

I think you two are pretty much in agreement :)

I know of small studios who are well regarded by publishers because they are consistently able to turn in quality work, on time and to budget. They simply know how to do that, and demonstrate their knowledge time after time. Unfortunately, whilst they may be in a silent majority, they don't represent the whole industry.

The reason we can't is because the games industry is still learning how to run after all these years.

I'm not talking specifically about game development.

Having seen both sides of the fence, modern games development doesn't do much worse, and in some cases is considerably better than 'regular' commercial software development.

But something always has to give, and no developer of anything is immune to managing performance/quality/schedule tradeoffs.