Capcom Blames GRIN For Poor Bionic Commando Sales
August 17, 2009
It still baffles me how many people rejected Capcom's recent Bionic Commando for the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, and PC. I've gone on about how fantastic it is, but apparently I'm in the minority as Capcom has put the blame on the game's poor sales at the feet of developer GRIN as well as the publisher's own poor management when dealing with the now-defunct company. Kotaku has the details.
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's too late to save GRIN, but it's still possible to save the Bionic Commando franchise from another twenty years of hibernation. It's a spectacularly fun game that deserves your attention, and if my frequent statements on that topic haven't persuaded you, maybe a little awesome music will. Sample these two selections from the game's soundtrack, "Groeder's Anthem" and "Hunters of the FSA".
"Groeder's Anthem" serves as antagonist Gottfried Groeder's own personal theme that, as the game goes on, becomes more and more menacing in tone. Appearing as a basic melody when the character is heard from a distance over a loudspeaker, it eventually becomes the full-force threatening composition heard here during hero Nathan Spencer's final encounter with his bionic counterpart.
Approximately midway through Spencer's mission, the BioReign terrorist faction decides to deal with Spencer directly and sends paratroopers into the ruins of Ascension City to eliminate him. This "Hunters of the FSA" theme strikes up at that time, setting the stage for some skilled bionic arm action as Spencer swings from lightposts and overpass structures while blasting his foes from above. Do it right and it's possible to defeat all of the paratroopers without losing momentum or touching the ground, making this portion of the game one of the most satisfying.