Bionic Commando - Leap into action!

[The Dude]

Shinji Mikami said that to Judd if memory serves.

http://grin.se/

Grin site announcement following its closure, shame really as judging from the podcast and obviously some of their games they were pretty talented.

http://www.bioniccommando.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1753&page=2

A quickfire response from Judd following a posters accusation that part of Grin's announcement regarding game publishers delaying Payment was hinting at Capcom.

Not a fan of hating on people, especially since Judd comes off as a nice enough guy however following the bungled delivery of Bionic Commando next gen and how it got so many things wrong etc, its a shame he didn't come out swinging to defend his product, it seemed to me besides the final podcast which really didn't go anywhere everyone on the Dev team went silent.
Shame Perhaps? Hope not.

[Carnivol]

I'd really like to know now who it was at Capcom that apparently basically told Judd that greenlighting this game was one of the stupidest decisions Capcom has made in quite some time. I think it was a producer or something, someone who was actually leaving Capcom at the time he/she said it. I wonder if it was one of the former Clover employees who now works with Platinum Games.

Don't remember exactly, but it might've been MIkami, but it might've also been Inafune himself. The full quote was something along the lines of "stupidest or bravest decision, ever." (Think they mentioned it on one of the first podcasts.)


But, yeah, sad news indeed. Some GRIN staff (mainly the terminator team, it seems) formed "Outbreak Studios", which apparently is gonna mainly focus on downloadable titles for XBLA/PC/PSN, according to their frontpage. Their team listing doesn't seem to contain any of the names some of us have come to love so much after BC:R and BCNG, though. But if they're able to use the Diesel Engine, then we know they've at least got access to what's more or less one of the best proprietary multi-platform engines out there.


And, yeah, Capcom wasn't part of the problem as far as non-paying license holders and publishers goes.


Wonder what their super secret tile was, though (If it was an original IP, sequel to something, or if Simon somehow got another dream project and was working on a Blaster Master remake )


Reason for the silence on the Capcom staff side (near and post release) was probably because everyone got shifted to new projects once Bionic Commando wrapped up, and they more or less had to squeeze in hours of their own work time to drop by the forums while juggling stuff. Been there myself in the past, where the only home hours you get at home are those you'll spend in bed (or with your head down the toilet, if that's your sort of thing you'd do during what to some is the most important period of development)

[Carnivol]

Capcom: Bionic Commando franchise is not dead


Go! Go! Go! Bionic!

[nemesiswontdie]

That's good for the people who like BC but after playing the newest BC I wont EVER play another one again.

[Zombie Fred]

Let's hope it'll be more rearmed goodness, unless they have a good idea to do another 3D game. I'm going to wait and see how this turns out.

[MeganGrass]

Wonder what their super secret tile was, though (If it was an original IP, sequel to something, or if Simon somehow got another dream project and was working on a Blaster Master remake )

Old news now, but according to many sites, they were coinciding with Square-Enix to make yet-another Final Fantasy title. A lot of concept art has surfaced, too... not that I really care.

Capcom: Bionic Commando franchise is not dead


Go! Go! Go! Bionic!

It's great that CAPCOM confirms this, really, but I don't know how much longer that it can stay alive with that whacky, intolerable theme song and the overhyped, crappy 3d sequel.

CAPCOM will have to pull a trick from it's sleeve to save this franchise, and STOP outsourcing! Sure, Rearmed is great, but we all saw what happens to a video game franchise when it's not in the hands of it's original creators - a commercial flop.

[Dracarys]

I enjoyed Bionic Commando myself. The story sucked and the graphics quite naff but the gameplay was great.


I only paid £10 for it though, probably not worth a normal £40.

[Carnivol]

Old news now, but according to many sites, they were coinciding with Square-Enix to make yet-another Final Fantasy title. A lot of concept art has surfaced, too... not that I really care.

As far as GRIN's other projects goes, they had Fortress (Pretty much confirmed to be an Ivalice Alliance title), EDF (Earth Defense Force) and "Blue Steel" (possibly Strider) on their table. A lot of dirty stuff indicates that Fortress is still in development (the internet rumor machine suggests Eidos got it moved to Starbreeze and that some GRIN members have found a new home there. Nothing confirmed, though). After the announcement of GRIN's shutdown, several GRIN members of the Bionic Commando team also said their relationship with Capcom was still in good shape.

It's great that CAPCOM confirms this, really, but I don't know how much longer that it can stay alive with that whacky, intolerable theme song and the overhyped, crappy 3d sequel.

Bionic Commando was overhyped? (As for the theme song, can't go wrong with Ichirou Mizuki. Besides, it was only part of the Japanese marketing push for the game, where Ichirou Mizuki is to, by default, to be associated with anything involving robots and ass-kicking.)

CAPCOM will have to pull a trick from it's sleeve to save this franchise, and STOP outsourcing! Sure, Rearmed is great, but we all saw what happens to a video game franchise when it's not in the hands of it's original creators - a commercial flop.

Nothing wrong with outsourcing. Especially considering how the franchise has been dead for nearly a whole decade and it never even had anything resembling a fanbase back home. The Gameplay aspects of Bionic Commando are amazingly good, multiplayer is still great fun (but in need of further tweaking) and I'm still uncertain about whether or not it'd be possible to pull it off on Capcom's own engine, as everything that's been done with Framework so far has been limited to small, sealed off areas and anything involving large scale areas has looked incredibly plain. Not to mention the amount of love, easter eggs and attention to detail you can find in both Rearmed and Bionic Commando. Stuff you most likely wouldn't have found had the project not been outsourced to a studio who "wanted" the project.

Assuming something is instantly a failure, just 'cause it's outsourced, is pretty much pure ignorance.

Dragon Quest VIII was outsourced to Level 5 and has sold roughly 7 million copies and probably still holds the title of being the fastest selling PS2 game, ever. Enix->Square-Enix have been throwing projects at Matrix Software for ages too, with great success.

Capcom threw Umbrella Chronicles at Cavia, which sales pushed over a million not too long after its release. Code: Veronica was also an outsourced project.

Maybe this one doesn't count, as they're both owned by Activision, but Call of Duty: World at War wasn't developed by franchise creator Infinity Ward. It was done by Treyarch, and yet went on to become what's probably without doubt the biggest (economically + sales) title of 2008.

Of course, what all of these have in common is that they're all handled somewhat locally. But when it all comes down to it, the problem isn't the outsourcing, it's the franchise being outsourced. What a lot of the outsourced "failures" have in common is that the end product is about just as good as a lot of other stuff out there, but the fact that the title belongs to a franchise that has no longer got a foot through the door is alienating for newcomers, as the marketing often seems to focus on it being a retro revival, and the only pre-existing fanbase to appeal to is almost entirely built up of hatemongers of the "They're raping my childhood!"-type (although their "childhood" is nothing but terribly foggy memories of what may have been only 5 minutes of exposure to something that might not have been very good... even by the standards back then)


Anyway, Bionic Commando certainly didn't meet initial expectations, but then again, the 3D game shipped over 500 000 units on consoles, with no words on PC sales and total sales of Rearmed (Though, Rearmed pushed over 130 000 purchased downloads the first week. A number that is now more or less matched by the Xbox 360 version alone. So it's not unlikely to think Rearmed has pushed well over 300 000 by now)

I'm curious to see how Dark Void and Dead Rising 2 evt. performs. Spyborgs doesn't seem to've been off to a great go, but the team for it probably wasn't very big and the marketing seems to've relied a bit too much on... word of mouth?

I enjoyed Bionic Commando myself. The story sucked and the graphics quite naff but the gameplay was great.


I only paid £10 for it though, probably not worth a normal £40.

Don't regret buying it on launch, but I don't see what you thought wasn't good about the graphics. Some of the more open areas later in the game still wow me as easily some of the best stuff this console generation (Port Andersson being the prime sample, but the park has this amazingly "warm" and sweet look too. The Constructor level + some of the multiplayer maps are pure love too)

[Zombie Fred]

I thought their engine was not up to shape on a few technical areas, there was way too many "loading" zones through out the game, and always found each area's size (in most instances) too small, making it frequent and annoying. Personally this was the biggest fault I found for the game other than its linear progress.

[Carnivol]

Only small areas in the game were the ones in the beginning of Ascension City. All later areas were pretty large in size. But, yeah, it would've probably helped a lot (in general) if they had some sort of asset streaming system going instead of full load points. Sealing off areas to prevent backtracking could've easily been done with the "gates" you open to progress in various areas (Though, their inclusion of interactive controller descriptions on the loading screen was a very nice touch. Not many games do that. I know at least the Bayonetta demo has a nice loading screen touch like this too)