It would seem that the mud slinging has elevated to a new level between Namco and former Splatterhouse developer Bottlerocket. The latest round suggests that Bottlerocket had performance issues, according to Namco Bandai EVP Makoto Iwai.

While Iwai suggested that he does not want to go into detail because gamers seem to have a bias that favors small independent developers over the publishers, the only clarification that Iwai would make is that the game was not meeting the requirements the company had set for the title.

According to what we have been able to uncover, tensions were high between Bottlerocket and Namco Bandai over Splatterhouse and the direction that the title was headed. Things were even worse when Namco Bandai had members from the Afro Samurai team interacting with the Bottlerocket team which, according to our sources, created additional friction.

Although Iwai might have a point about the stories and gamers alike twisting the news to favor Bottlerocket, and while there is some bias toward smaller independent developers, we believe that it certainly is not as bad as some might suggest.