Ex-Splatterhouse developers BottleRocket Entertainment aren't taking accusations of poor performance lying down. The independent studio has issued a strong response to Namco Bandai's claim that a "performance issue" led to the project being pulled.

While Namco Bandai Games chief operating officer Makoto Iwai put blame on the Splatterhouse developer, BottleRocket defends its development on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 title as sticking to contractually defined milestones, according to a report from Gamasutra. It offers an alternate explanation, that "Namco's management of the title was inept."

BottlRocket's initial response to having the game yanked from them late in development was relatively cordial, if stifled bitterness was apparent in-between the lines.

Its reaction to Iwai's implication that BottleRocket wasn't delivering? Notsomuch. It prefaces its explanation with "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."

So, which is worse? Having accusations levied against your performance and not responding? Or filling official comment with obvious venom? Obviously, we prefer the latter.

Ex-Splatterhouse Dev BottleRocket Contests Namco's Performance Claims [Gamasutra]

Send an email to Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com.