After seeing both of its most recent projects fall through, independent developer BottleRocket has closed its doors, though its founder is planning a new studio.

"After fighting to keep the doors open for the past six months we have decided to close and move on," studio founder Jay Beard informed GamesIndustry.biz.

The company suffered two crippling blows across the year, as publishing partner Brash imploded, leaving the company with an incomplete and unfunded game based off resident DC Universe speedster The Flash. Then, a few months later, Namco showed up with a U-Haul truck and took off with all of BottleRocket's ... Read more

As the legal battle between DJ Hero developer Activision and Scratch: The Ultimate DJ publisher Genius Products continues to unfold, "sources with knowledge of the game's development" have told Kotaku that Scratch is now in the hands of a new studio.

Scratch was originally being developed by 7 Studios, but following Activision's purchase of the developer, Genius Products terminated the agreement. Activision and 7 Studios were then ordered to turn over the source code for the game and its development tools.

"[The code] is theirs. It belongs to [Genius and hardware maker Numark]. They paid six million dollars for it," said Judge James Chalfant, reports Gamasutra. "I'm done."

According to Kotaku's sources, Scratch is now under development at BottleRocket, which recently made headlines when its Splatterhouse project was confiscated by publisher Namco Bandai and then handed off to another developer.

Original Splatterhouse developer BottleRocket Entertainment today shot back at former publisher Namco Bandai, alleging that Namco was "inept" in its handling of the project.

BottleRocket was abruptly dismissed from Splatterhouse development last month. Since then, Namco has publicly defended the move, stating that there was a "performance issue" with BottleRocket.

But BottleRocket has now issued its own version of the story, defending its performance record while accusing Namco of mismanagement.

"We too have to be careful of what we say since publishers have to worry about their 'image' and will sue small, independent studios who bark back at them too loudly," begins a BottleRocket statement issued to Gamasutra.

Continues BottleRocket:

Game development contracts are put in place to protect the publisher and their interests. Within these contracts are a series... Read more

Back before Brash Entertainment imploded, the publisher was working with BottleRocket on a game inspired by resident DC Comics speedster The Flash.

Now, a few screenshots of the cancelled project have emerged from artists Bryan Johnson and Veronica Lynn Harper, noticed by Joystiq and superannuation.

Up until recently, BottleRocket was developing Splatterhouse alongside Namco Bandai. However, Namco confiscated all related development hardware and assets in a U-Haul truck earlier this month, with BottleRocket now preparing an unannounced new project.

Update: Namco Bandai has confirmed that BottleRocket Entertainment is no longer involved with Splatterhouse, which is still due on PS3 and Xbox 360 this year.

"We have decided to part ways with BottleRocket Entertainment but we are committed to bringing Splatterhouse to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year," Namco told Kotaku. "At this time, we are not ready to discuss specific development details about the game and wish BottleRocket the best of luck in their future endeavors."

No reason was given for the sudden shift, though tipsters tell Kotaku that the game has suffered from missed deadlines and content that didn't meet Namco's expectations.

Meanwhile, BottleRocket has issued a statement of its own, telling Gamasutra that, "last Friday, Namco showed up with a U-Haul truck, took all their assets (dev kits, etc.) and informed management that the title was being pulled from Bottlerocket."

Original: Publisher Namco Bandai has released a new trailer for Splatterhouse, with rumors that developer BottleRocket has been pulled from the... Read more