Having lost new project Splatterhouse earlier this year, after some eighteen months working on the new game, developer Bottlerocket have hit back at suggestions that a "performance issue" saw them eventually lose the title.

"Splatterhouse had been in for over eighteen months and up to having the title taken away from us we had not missed any contractually defined milestones. So either there were no performance during that timeframe or Namco’s management of the title was inept," read a statement from the firm, published by Gamasutra.

The statement initially said that Bottlerocket would need to be careful what they say, "since publishers have to worry about their 'image' and will sue small, independent studios who bark back at them too loudly."

Splatterhouse is now being worked on by the team behind Afro Samurai at Namco.

By Luke Guttridge