It was just around early last month when we reported of how Bizarre Creations spilled the beans on their ex, Microsoft, describing them as "getting cocky" at the tail-end of their partnership. Today, we have another company coming forward airing out their being upset with Microsoft. This time, it's Realtime Studios. Things apparently got really cracked up in Crackdown 2.

 

The development of the sequel was handed to Ruffian, a start-up company helped founded by several members of Realtime Worlds, developers of Crackdown. Prior to that confirmation, rumors were busily swirling about so much that Colin MacDonald of RTW had to issue a statement, re-affirming their belief that they "very much doubt [that] Microsoft would harm an otherwise fruitful existing development relationship by gambling on funding Crackdown 2 with a start-up on RTW's doorsteps, for obvious reasons."

With the confirmation that Ruffian will indeed be handling Crackdown 2's development, RTW CEO David Jones is not happy, and he's letting the world know about it.

The bottom line is that what we thought would happen is that a sequel would be done by a studio somewhere... maybe one of the internal studios, or others that they've worked with, and that would be the way it went forward. I think it was unfortunate that it had to be with a start-up in Dundee... it is challenging to get enough developers in one region as it is, so that was the only little bit of negativity to the story.

It's just one of those awkward moments. In terms of the franchise, as always - as with anything we've created - we're always keen to see it do great things. This is like a bump in the road... was there really no way it could have been done by one of the studios Microsoft shut down...? I was a bit miffed at Microsoft that it happened that way, but you live and learn.

Swallowed like a bitter pill. What does Microsoft have to say about this, I wonder?

To read up on what else he had to say about it, click on the source link below.

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Related Articles:

• Bizarre Creations on Microsoft: They got cocky on us
• A few details for Crackdown 2 revealed