â??No monkeys?!â?? Why publishers nixed Joe Danger

Hello Games took to the stage at the Develop Conference today to exact revenge on the publishers that turned down the Joe Danger project.

Sean Murray, a programmer at the studio, revealed that Joe Danger sold 50,000 copies in its first week on the PlayStation Network. Yet Hello Games struggled to convince publishers that the title would work.

Without naming any names, Murray went through a list of reasons why the game was turned down, quoting what he had heard from various publishers in meetings. Attendees at the Develop session broke into laughter.

The list, as quoted by Murray, can be found below:

“Name me one popular game with motorbikes?”

”Collecting giant coins feels unrealistic to me”

”I can see this working as a Facebook app”

”We want games that are less about fun right now”

”We love the theme, but with a different game”

”We believe the iPhone will be largely unsupported”

”Can Joe be a monkey? We like Monkeys”