Back in May of last year, the word got out the Bionic Commando: Rearmed would lack online play despite sporting both multiplayer and co-op modes. Obviously this disappointed us, as it seems to be the case all too often these days, developers get things almost right in terms of a fully featured game.
It's now some 9 months later and in a post mortem with Gamasutra, Capcom's Ben Judd analyzes the entire development process and the outcome. Perhaps unsurprisingly Ben sticks by their decision to cut online play.
As frustrating as all the "no online play = no buy" comments were to read, in hindsight, this was the right choice. After seeing the large amount of headaches, additional production time, and cost that comes with adding online, I'm glad we made the choice not to include it.
Ben even pushed the game's developer GRIN to at least include an online co-op mode.
To give GRIN credit, even though I initially put pressure on them to add in online co-op, they gave it to me straight. They knew that adding online would be a huge amount of risk
Regardless of what he says, I bought this game and played it maybe twice. If I would have had an online partner I may have taken the time to complete it. Perhaps I'm the fool for giving them the money.