GRIN To Close?
Bionic Commando developers might be closing up.Published 11/08/2009 at 9:00 by nofi
Tech Demo Footage Of GRIN’s Fortress Surfaces [12]
GRIN Leave Behind One Final Surprise [8]
Rumours have surfaced overnight that Bionic Commando developers GRIN are in trouble. The team behind Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Bionic Commando and Terminator Salvation have produced games that haven’t exactly always been well received or indeed critically reviewed, and this would be on top of heavy layoffs earlier in the year after the poor reception to Terminator Salvation and a report in June confirmed that GRIN have already closed their Barcelona and Gothenburg offices.
The rumours overnight concern their principle Stockholm office, with employees (according to Gamasutra) being told to “not to show up for work” with the company undergoing some kind of closing or bankruptcy procedure. Despite the impressive PC versions of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, GRIN have struggled to make much impact on the console scene despite attracting considerable development deals from major publishers like Capcom. We’ll update if we get any further information on this story.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
fogcity94 | 11/08/2009 09:05
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That sucks. I really liked Bionic Commando rearmed.
It’s to bad that they made some crappy movie games.
Although I guess practicaly all movie games are crap.
Gastos84 | 11/08/2009 09:12
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Movie based games should not be made. They put too much time contsraint on the devs therefore the games are sub-standard hence the poor reviews hence the lack of revenue.
I have yet to play a single movie tie in that I enjoyed and stuck with. Sure, take the name, the characters etc but why not also take the time to create a descent game. You can always create a new storyline which will work better as a game. Following a film’s narrative and plot does not lend itself to the cross-over.
I have yet to play Bionic Commando but it is a shame that yet another dev would appear to be hitting the wall.
fogcity94 | 11/08/2009 09:15
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They should put a ban on games being made that are directly based on movies.
cc_star | 11/08/2009 09:17
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Agreed,
Making a game loosely themed around the characters would be much better than sticking to the Movies screen play.
It would allow great creative freedoms and probably a better gaming experience.
I’m also not sure if it possible to knock out a HD generation game in the same time it takes to produce, edit & release a movie… surely the time constraints lead to shortcuts and compromises being taken.
Gastos84 | 11/08/2009 09:27
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They churn it out on all platforms meaning there is nothing to make the PS3/360 versions stand out, which is needed when people have paid a hell of a lot of money for the hardware.
Take /some/ of the Star Wars games for example. KOTOR were brilliant because they worked with the environment and the world that the films had created.
I always felt like The Transformers games could have been brillinat. You have a set of characters that are unique to any film/game which is rare these days. They missed a trick with those.
BrendanCalls | 11/08/2009 09:23
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc - YOHIMBÉ!!!
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Video game devs should take a similar stance to films as comic book devs do.
They are all completely different mediums and what works well on one might not work so well on another. Game developers need to unite and take a stand to protect there industry instead of bending over every time Michael Bay says so
Severn2j | 11/08/2009 09:29
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I agree, in fact I think a lot of the game industry’s current problems have a lot to do with them trying to make games more like movies, and having to deal with the huge budgets that go along with that..
Severn2j | 11/08/2009 09:27
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The only movie game I can think of that was any good, was Bladerunner on the PC, which just took the locations and ideas and made a game separate from the movie..
Its a shame Grin are going to fold, they did make some good games (on PC, anyway). Actually, I just looked up their games list on Wikipedia, and the only good game they made was Ghost Recon. Perhaps not such a surprise after all…
Gastos84 | 11/08/2009 09:28
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The Point & Click game? That was brilliant.
Severn2j | 11/08/2009 09:31
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Yeah, thats the one.. One of the things I really liked about that game, was that each of the characters in the game (including yourself) could be human or replicant, and changed each time you played it, so you always got a different outcome..
Reiterpallasch | 11/08/2009 10:09
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Blade Runner was a great game, but it wasn’t really a movie game, it was a game set in Blade Runner’s world.
SpikeyMikey23 | 11/08/2009 12:34
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i really wanna play that game now, a trip upto the attic is in order!
Bilbo_bobbins | 11/08/2009 09:45
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If you can’t design decent games, then fair enough, competition is good, so weeding out the rubbish ones is a good thing for us all.
It’s a shame to see people lose their jobs but I am sure they will find something else in the industry.
Triggerhappytel | 11/08/2009 09:49
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Since they did such a good job with BCR, Capcom should get them to do a PSN/XBLA remake of Strider.
It’ll be a shame if they close. They haven’t produced partcularly bad games; they just seem to be quite unfortunate in terms of retail performance.
Blah789 | 11/08/2009 10:24
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Damn i was hoping that they would be able to make a sequeal to Bionic Commando: Rearmed as they did a good remake of the original.
fogcity94 | 11/08/2009 10:30
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Welcome to TSA
Blah789 | 11/08/2009 10:34
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you too its good to see friendly faces around here
DRCD1 | 11/08/2009 13:09
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I actually enjoyed Wanted Weapons of Fate, though beside the first levels, it didn’t really seemed like based neither on the movie nor the comics.
Bionic Comando Re-armed was cool and Bionic Comando had good reviews. And terminator couldn’t have been that bad. WHY?!?!??! P.S.: When I can I’ll buy bionic commando.
fredrikpedersen | 11/08/2009 16:20
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Because their games weren’t exactly big-hitters. Infact, every game but Rearmed was nothing more than a mediocre game made for some quick cash. After Rearmed it all went downhills, ending, hopefully, with Terminator Salvation
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 11/08/2009 19:33
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I’m surprised that Terminator has done badly, due to the fact everybody these days is (like me) obsessed with trophies.
However, I guess they don’t make their money from rentals, and I doubt many people actually bought Terminator just for the sake of 3 and a half hours earning easy gold trophies and the easiest platinum in existence.
I would imagine it’s a similar scenario with Wanted, as I know SOOO many people who have rented that out for trophies (or gamerscore for 360 owners) and SOOO little people who actually decided to buy the game.
I’m still yet to play Bionic Commando, might buy it when it becomes cheap, near-enough everyone who owns it has given positive feedback on it
Gastos84 | 11/08/2009 09:50
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I did get in a cop with that game once. You know the two headed computer guy/thing that you went to visit on several occasions? I might have got a bit trigger happy and shot it! Then I was stuck