Answering a question on Capcom's "alliances" with overseas developers, Tsujimoto echoes comments made a few weeks back by Resident Evil producer Jun Takeuchi (not to mention reminding us of his own personal scars), by essentially saying that it's hard, hard work joining forces with an international studio.

"Our experience with Bionic Commando has demonstrated the difficulty of outsourcing the development of new title to overseas companies", he said. "Nevertheless, we cannot develop a sufficient number of titles without using the resources of these companies. This is why we plan to continue using these alliances."

"We are considering ways to separate the roles of activities in Japan and overseas. We plan to develop new titles primarily in Japan. Overseas companies may be used mostly to develop titles for existing game series with well-established characters and universal themes. Overseas companies will also handle certain parts and/or lineups of such games."

So the West is a sequel farm for Capcom IP. And just like that, Capcom's decade-long program of reaching out to international developers in order to increase their global market share misses the point entirely.

Bionic Commando: Lego Armed [Capcom-Unity]

As part of a Q&A from the company's recent fiscal earnings conference call, Capcom President Haruhiro Tsujimoto gave his two cents.

"Our analysis indicates that the game elements were not well received by customers", he said, "and that our management of overseas subcontractors wasn't thorough enough."

Translation: broken game, blame management, blame Grin. Interesting that he'd single out Grin (and Capcom's lack of thoroughness), especially when at the time of him saying this, the Swedish devs were still in business.

It wasn't all doom and gloom for Capcom, however, as Tsujimoto says the company learned a valuable lesson or two from the whole thing.

"Establishing partnerships with subcontractors allows us to absorb their know-how and incorporate it into Capcom's own development process" the bossman said, consoling shareholders. "We will take what we learned from "Bionic Commando" and apply these lessons in the future."

In a letter from GRIN founders Bo and Ulf Andersson, the CEO and director, respectively, write that "too many publishers have been delaying their payments" to the developer, ending the 12-year-old company officially. The Anderssons lament their "unreleased masterpiece that we weren't allowed to finish," going on to thank their partners and the publishers who apparently did pay them.

Rumors of GRIN's demise began popping up earlier this week, with studios Barcelona and Gothenburg shutting down and the imminent closure of the company's Stockholm HQ. That followed reports of cutbacks earlier in the year, not long after the developer's Bionic Commando and Terminator games failed to inspire sales.

GRIN was reported to have filed for bankruptcy earlier today, with Swedish news radio outlet Sveriges Radio citing the economic climate at the root cause of the closure.

Develop also reports that some former GRIN employees have founded a new studio, Outbreak Studios, which plans to focus on downloadable titles for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iPhone, Games for Windows Live and PSPgo. Outbreak was founded by former GRIN lead programmer Peter Bjorklund, whose credits unfortunately include Terminator: Salvation.

Best of luck to the guys and gals at GRIN. We really would've liked to see what became of that final "unreleased masterpiece." And thanks to all of our tipsters—Guendolin, Khoi and Johan—for the helpful info.

The last Credits from the brothers GRIN [GRIN]

In the wake of a round of layoffs earlier this year, it's now being reported that the company have closed their studios in Barcelona and Gothenburg, while employees at GRIN HQ in Stockholm, Sweden, are also being "told not to show up for work".

We've contacted GRIN for confirmation, and will update if we hear back from them.

If true, it's a sad fate for the company behind Bionic Commando: Rearmed. Then again, you may not be as sad if you paid for Wanted. Or Terminator Salvation. Or Bionic Commando...

Report: Developer GRIN Sees More Layoffs, Potential Studio Closures [Gamasutra]

According to the Japanese publisher, the game has shipped 550,000 copies to retailers since launch. And that's a worldwide figure. That would be impressive, if we didn't have the sneaking suspicion many of those copies are still in the hands of said retailers.

Ascension City has been taken over by terrorists, which turns out to be good news for Nathan R.A.D. Spencer, pardoned from execution at the very last minute and sent behind enemy lines as humanity's last defense against whatever it is that those terrorists are up to. PC gamers can now experience this sequel to the arcade classic, just as not a whole lot of console owners did earlier this year.

The game goes live on Steam in about an hour and a half, ringing up at only $35.99, which is $4 off the suggested retail price. As an extra bonus, Bionic Commando Rearmed also hits Steam today, and Capcom's official announcement mentions a deal where you can get both for only $44.99, which turns out to be a savings of...$1? Well it's a savings at least.

Check out the PC requirements below to see if Bionic Commando is right for your gaming rig.

System Requirements
Supported OS: Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista® (service pack is optional)
Processor: Dual-core processor (Intel® Core™2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon™ X2 5200+ 2.6 GHz)
Memory: 1.5 GB RAM
Graphics: DirectX®9.0c/Shader3.0 compatible, VRAM 512 MB (NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800 series or ATI Radeon™ X1900)
Sound: DirectX®9.0c compatible sound cards
DirectX®: DirectX®9.0c
Hard Drive: 8.0 GB free space
Peripherals: Keyboard and Xbox 360 controller supported

Delayed until well after the console releases - a distressing trend we're seeing more and more this generation - the PC edition of the game will be out on July 17. Which is next Friday!

It's the same game, only with sharper graphics, so yeah, if you want to know what we think, read Fahey's review.

Bionic Commando PC gets release date [Eurogamer]

After all, the same developers (Grin) released a Bionic Commando game last year that lacked the advertising, budget and horsepower of the "main" title, yet it still managed to sell over 130,000 copies during its first week on sale, despite being a port of a difficult, antiquated arcade/NES title.

So what gives? Why were there over 130,000 people willing to buy Bionic Commando Rearmed in a week, but in over a week on sale, the "real deal" couldn't even move 30,000?

Aside from the fact Rearmed was great, and that the 130k figure includes global sales, surely price plays a part. Rearmed was an Xbox Live Arcade title, while Bionic Commando launched as a full-price retail game. The game's long development period - which has led many to remark "oh, that wasn't already out?" - probably didn't help either.

But I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the game's demo, perhaps the worst of its kind I've ever seen. Here we had a game with a difficult, though not impossible control scheme. At press events, demos had been preceded by a helpful, effective tutorial, which let you come to grips with the game's swinging mechanic before hitting the streets.

But the demo was inexplicably multiplayer-only. With no tutorial. Gamers downloaded it, booted it up, then had no idea what the hell they were supposed to be doing. For a game most would only be picking up for its singleplayer experience, this was as big a marketing error as you could possibly hope for, as it generated a ton of negative buzz over the game, and these kind of titles live and die on the buzz generated by the hardcore.

Maybe Grin - and Capcom - would be in better shape if they'd just commissioned a sequel to Rearmed instead?

Gamasutra got their hands on the NPD numbers for the title, which represent U.S. retail sales between May 19th and May 30th. To put things in perspective, Terminator Salvation, also developed by Sweden's Grin studio, sold 43,000 units in the same length of time. The contrast between sales of the two titles really says a great deal about how recognizable properties tend to blind consumers to game reviews. Bionic Commander garnered a Metacritic average of 70, while Terminator scored a measly 45 percent, yet the latter outsold the former by a good 16,000 copies.

Perhaps the low sales for Bionic Commando are simply a result of another month of declining video game sales, as the low numbers certainly aren't limited to Grin-developed titles. Another game released on May 19th, Ea's Boom Blox Bash Party for the Wii, only sold 23,000 units during the same period, though of course that title was a console exclusive and Bionic Commando appeared on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

While no information was available as to how the consoles split those 27,000 copies, sources tell us that the Xbox 360 demo, as dismal as it may have been, did manage to boost sales on Microsoft's console significantly.

Slow sales can't possibly be good for Grin of course, already the subject of rumored layoffs late last month. Despite the rumors and poor performance, I ran into a couple of Grin folks at E3 earlier this month who seemed completely upbeat, and when I asked "Aren't you guys supposed to be fired?" they simply laughed and handed me a pair of Grin-embroidered socks. I suppose that could mean something in Sweden.

Killzone Leads Infamous For Biggest 2009 PS3 Original: The PlayStation 3 push for original first-party games gave the world Killzone 2 in February, which managed 323,000 units sold in its first two days of sales. Infamous, the next big PS3 original, which was on sale for four days during the latest sales reporting period, sold 176,000.

UFC Pummels Punch-Out: Great reviews and an aggressive web marketing campaign from Nintendo didn't help the Wii edition of Punch-Out compete in the same league with THQ's PS3/Xbox 360 UFC: Undisputed. The cartoony boxing game managed about 150k in sales, while UFC cracked a million, despite the games being released within a day of each other.

A Rare Wii Third-Party Fast-Starter: Usually, third-party games on the Wii don't start strong. There are exceptions. For example, launched in 2006, Red Steel reached a million units sold on the Wii in about six months. Guitar Hero III sold more than 200,000 on the Wii in its first month of sales in late 2007. But most third-party Wii games have crept softly out of the gate while the likes of Wii Fit and Wii Play garnered more glory. Not this month! Enter EA Sports Active, making one of the best debuts of a third-party game on the Wii with about 346,000 units sold.

Notable new releases that failed to make the overall software top 10 (selling under 109,000 units in the U.S.): Battlestations Pacific (May 12), Bionic Commando (May 19), Boom Blox Bash Party (May 19), Terminator Salvation (May 19), Personal Trainer Walking (May 25)

May 2009 U.S. Video Game Hardware Sales - NPD-PD version
Daily averages based on the May NPD date range: 5/3/09-5/30/09

Nintendo DS - 22,625 units/day (down 15,894)
Wii - 10,339 units/day (down 2,254)
Xbox 360 - 6,250 units/day (down 231)
PS3 - 4,679 units/day (up 25)
PS2 - 4,179 units/day (down 2,191)
PSP - 3,586 units/day (down 710)

(Find out more about the Kotaku-patented NPD-PD stat)

The Kübler-Ross model of grief proposed in the 1969 book Death and Dying is actually a theory about dealing with death and terminal disease, both of which are way worse than just calling it quits with your special someone.

But breakups – even the mature, amicable kind where you know even before you split that you're going to be better off – still suck and sometimes you've got to let yourself go through the five stages in no particular order just to adjust.

1) Denial – Lord of the Rings: Conquest – "This can't be happening to me."
Here's a game that's very good at denying that anything is wrong. It's got a blockbuster movie license behind it, a dream team in development and publishing and the gameplay is based on the Star Wars: Battlefront series. Conquest had it all… so how could anything be wrong?

Even after reality set in for everybody else when the reviews came out, the the game kept right on denying with a big, fat downloadable content pack.

But no matter how many big-name characters are included from the book, sometimes you just have to face facts and move on.

2) Anger – Prototype – "It's not fair!"
Life isn't fair – particularly when it gives you body-morphing, people-absorbing powers that send the whole US Government after you as a terrorist. But there's no time to be sad when they send in the helicopters and the tanks. Sometimes you just have to get mad and Prototype is the game to do it with.

Between flinging pedestrians into helicopters and elbow-dropping tanks, you'll get rid of a lot of bad feelings and find healthy ways to entertain those revenge fantasies about your ex. Way better than boiling bunnies.

3) Bargaining – The Sims 3 – "Just one more, hour, minute, whatever… please, just one more!"
It's natural to feel like you could make things right if you just had a little more time or could do something with the departing loved one just one more time. But the reality is, no matter how many "just one more" times you get, there's always going to be more – more you want to do, more you want to say, more skills you need to raise before you can get that next job promotion.

In The Sims 3, you'll never run out of "just one more" things to do – one more trip to the mausoleum, one more Try for Baby, one more hour toward earning lifetime achievement points so you can buy the steel bladder perk. Maybe, eventually, it'll hit you that no matter what kind of deals you make inside your head, no matter how many ingredients you get for the Ambrosia recipe, sometimes it's just time to stop.

4) Depression – Bionic Commando – "I can't go on… it's just too sad."
It's okay to be bummed when a long-term relationship ends. It's even more okay if the relationship ended against your wishes.

*Spoilers* It's especially okay to be bummed if the relationship ended against your wishes and your loved one winds up embedded in your arm. *End Spoilers*

Just sit back and ride out the angst with a good, long play through of a game that truly gets it when it comes to being sad.

5) Acceptance – Street Fighter IV – "You can't fight it. Just take it."
The final stage of grief is sometimes the longest one coming – maybe even 12 years in coming. But as this game demonstrates, when this stage of grief finally arrives, it has improved graphics, flashier combos and is generally a better experience than you thought to hope for. Sure, everything feels a bit different and maybe you miss the way things were. But Street Fighter has moved on – why shouldn't you?

The bottom line is we all have different ways of coping with loss. Some are more effective than others, just like some games really are better than others. Whatever you choose to do to handle your feelings in the wake of a breakup, just make sure you're taking care of yourself.

And make sure you're playing on your own Xbox Live account because you cannot recover Gamerscore points earned on an account you shared with your ex.

GRIN, which has development offices in Sweden, Spain and Indonesia, is rumored to be in the process of shuttering its Gothenburg and Barcelona-based annexes. Layoffs at its headquarters in Stockholm are rumored to amount to nearly 30. That reduction in staff and studios is said to affect somewhere between 100 and 160 employees total.

The developer most recently shipped Terminator: Salvation for multiple platforms to mixed reviews. It also shipped Wanted: Weapons of Fate and Bionic Commando Rearmed within the last year.

While layoffs that occur after a major title ships are not uncommon in the industry, the alleged closure of studios is more telling of GRIN's situation.

We've contacted representatives from Capcom and GRIN, but have yet to receive confirmation on the layoffs. Consider this distressing news rumor until we hear something more definitive, but given the numerous sources, all of whom wished to be kept anonymous, we'd think something's definitely up.

Much has changed since Nathan Spencer first took on imperialist Nazi forces on a mission to rescue Super Joe. Ten years later bionics are now illegal, and Nathan is about to be executed by a country that betrayed him. Luckily for him, before the execution is carried out an experimental weapon detonates in Ascension City, and only one man and his special arm can infiltrate the ruins, eliminate the invading BioReign terrorists, and clear his name.

The new Bionic Commando takes the running, gunning, and swinging of the original game and drags it kicking and screaming into the current generation, no doubt leaving large metal finger furrows in the concrete as they did so. Was the effort worthwhile, or was this one franchise better left unarmed?

Loved
Swing, Swing, Swing: The swinging mechanic in Bionic Commando has certainly come a long way since I first played the game at E3 2008. GRIN really nailed the physics of the swing, to the point where the indicator that flashes on the screen when you are at the fastest point in your arc isn't really all that necessary. Making a long series of difficult swings is extremely rewarding, to the point where you can almost forgive Nathan Spencer's uncharacteristically exuberant cries.

Armed Assault: The true star of Bionic Commando is the arm, and I found that the most fun I had during my time with the game involved utilizing the huge metal appendage to cause mayhem and destruction. Whether I was tossing cars and rocks at giant mechs or yanking myself towards enemies to deliver a swift kick, manipulating people, places, and things with the bionic arm is extremely satisfying.

The Challenging Sweet Spot: Bionic Commando isn't a very forgiving game. If you screw up, you die, and if you're anything at all like me then you will die often, but you'll keep going back. Like its platforming predecessor, playing the game is often a matter of finding the best way to deal with any given situation. Aside from some radiation and water issues, there aren't really cheap deaths in Bionic Commando. Every lost life feels like an excuse to go back and try harder. I understand that difficulty is a personal thing, but for this person, Bionic Commando's standard difficulty felt just right.

Magic Moments: Scattered throughout Bionic Commando are several giant set pieces and scripted events that really pack a punch, delivering the sort of experience gamers will be reminiscing over for years to come. From swan diving off of a waterfall and catching a tree branch with your arm just before you become an impact crater to the sudden appearance of an enemy as tall as an office building, there are plenty of breathtaking moments to be experienced in the game.

Polished To A Glossy Sheen: When it comes to presentation, Bionic Commando is all aces. The graphics are stunning, ably representing the large scale of the game's various levels. Dust swirls, water splashes, and automotive glass shatters as you toss about cars like children's playthings. The soundtrack is suitably epic as well, with classic Bionic Commando music remixed into the sort of score you'd expect from a big-budget action flick.

Hated
Nathan Spencer Is A Dick: There's a thin line between bad ass and asshole, and Nathan Spencer long-jumped across it at some point between the first Bionic Commando and this new one. Sure he's been in prison, lost his wife, and been betrayed by the country he once served, but Nate lays it on a bit thick. Faith No More's Mike Patton grunts his way through Nathan's generic badassery, coming to life only during some of the more "humorous" phrases, which seem completely unnecessary given the circumstances. What kind of grizzled, jaded hero cheers like a high school kid during a particularly long jump?

Radiation Therapy: The joy of potentially limitless exploration is cut short by GRIN's terrible choice of player leashing mechanisms, radiation. Drop too low, and the radiation kills you. Climb too high, and the radiation kills you. I'm no scientist, but I wasn't aware that radiation formed corridors. The mechanic feels very cheap, and oftentimes spoils the fun of a nice bout of precision swinging.

Aw, Shoot: While some of the heavier weapons in Bionic Commando can be a literal blast to fire, the small arms leave much to be desired. Killing enemies with guns is a matter of looking in their direction and holding down the fire button. You can zoom in order to get a closer look at what you are shooting at, but the slowdown that comes with the enhanced view is often more trouble than it's worth, leaving you open to enemy fire.

Multiplayer Meh: I wasn't able to find many people playing Bionic Commando multiplayer matches, and when I did get it, it became readily apparent why. As much fun as swinging and climbing is, the shooting isn't. Unfortunately, the other players wish to kill you instead of simply enjoying swinging about in their colorful outfits, so multiplayer matches involve a great deal of concentration on maneuvering, brief flashes of gunfire, and many corpses falling out of the sky. It was nice of GRIN to try, but as a whole the experience just falls flat.

Pacing Back And Forth: My only other major issue with Bionic Commando lies in the game's pacing, or lack thereof. One moment you're running through a level that consists solely of a tunnel filled with enemies; the next you're engaging in huge, multi-objective battles across giant open areas. One level in particular seemed to have been created solely to house a cut scene. I suppose not knowing what to expect keeps the player on their toes, but a little more consistency would have been appreciated.

True, Bionic Commando may have many failings, but what developer GRIN and Capcom have managed to accomplish with this remake is subtly astonishing. They've managed to mix current-generation graphics and game play with old school arcade feel and difficulty. Bucking the trend that sees many of today's games becoming too easy to please the more hardcore crowd, Bionic Commando is unforgiving and unapologetic. Instead of holding your hand, the game gives you a giant mechanical monstrosity attached to your left shoulder and says here, hold it yourself. It can be frustrating, but it makes overcoming the obstacles presented that much more rewarding.

Bionic Commando is definitely a game worthy to carry that esteemed name, and while it can be a complete and utter bitch at times, good times await those not afraid of a little challenge.

Bionic Commando was developed by GRIN and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Released on May 19th. Retails for $59.99. Played PlayStation 3 version. Completed story mode on normal difficulty, played through multiple rounds of online multiplayer across all three game types.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Helpfully, Capcom's Seth Killian provided a video that dads can use to impress upon their kids how prudent it is to get your butthole checked for polyps every day once you turn 52. And to also say "It sorta feels like that."

For those wondering, my Dad's version involved a staple gun going to work on his sphincter. "It was a biopsy thing that takes a core sample," Dad said, with a perfect thousand-yard stare straight from the battlefield. "After the first one I asked how many he had to take. He said 12. After three you're begging for mercy."

Bionic Proctologist [Capcom-Unity]

The star of Bionic Commando, that is. Heather Mills. Yeah. The action game follows the adventures of one-armed hero Nathan "RAD" Spencer.

A source tells The Sun, "She was insistent she wouldn't do it for a smaller fee and said the producers should make her the star. The request was way, way over budget and they certainly weren't keen on basing the game on her."

Mills' account of how it went down is quite different. In her official Twitter account, she tweeted,

Got offered to promote an amputee bionic computer game, from a wealthy computer games company I said if you donate a large sum to charity.

The stingy company came back saying they couldn't, what happened to charitable businesses, seems they just want to exploit and give nothing.

It may make sense to take the offer but I'd rather donate regularly to many charities much more than they're offering and not be exploited.

About those claims The Sun has made, Mills quipped, "Connect Sun journalists to a lie detector machine which triggers an electric current attached to their privates."

Capcom has declined to comment about this incident. Heather Mills, it seems, has not.

Greedy Mucca's out of lucka [The Sun via VG247]

I've had issues with the controls in the past, and the multiplayer demo wasn't exactly thrilling, but put together a swinging montage set to some powerful music and I'm suddenly all excited that the game is coming out next week. The piano rendition of the stage one music from the original game at the end completely sealed the deal for me. Classy!

Inside was a cornucopia of Bionic Commando goodies including an action figure, polo, poster, lanyards and the swankiest USB drive I've ever seen. All of this, as usual, is destined for this year's Child's Play Funde Razor in Denver.

In which our hero is falling, head-first, into an explosion, while shooting a gun at something and being shot at by a flying helicopter robot.