http://kotaku.com/5691455/bizarre-devs-took-a-chance-may-get-closedbizarre-devs-took-a-chance-may-get-closed Please tell me it's not true!
Activision has owned Bizarre for years now. They dont own PGR (I dont know about GW) since it is Microsofts property
GoH talking nonsense again. Well Blur did not do very well in the marketplace (and it is another racing game in the market place), and the reviews for 007 - Blood Stone were average at best, so it's not really surprising in this day and age for Activision to pull the plug. Kotaku are talking out of their arse again, the Bizzarre studios staff have been given 90 days and have been made reduntant, so they will get a nice pay off and most will probably go off and set up their own studio again or go work for someone else. Budcat studios have also been made reduntant, although as these guys wrote the Guitar Hero games on the Playstation 2 and as Activision have decided to stop writing PS2 games it is not surprising. Studios come and studios go, the smart ones remain independent or have good publishing deals.
It's only nonsense when it comes from me but you know you wish the same fate on Bobby Kotwhateverhisname is too
Activision bought Bizarre for a fair chunk of money, they release one game that to date has just sold over 550,000 units on 3 formats. A bad need for speed game sells over then generally on one format, Modnation racers which was only sold on the PS3 outsold it on retail. They finish another game and it's getting average reviews, now if I was running a company I would be thinking about have I spend $60m well? I might think that it is cheaper to release the company and not worry about paying wages for the sake of a company that won't release another game until late next year at the earliest. Companies are generally as good as their last game and you only have to look at Rare to know that you can go from being one of the best developers ever to making fairly hoo hum games.
I used to visit Bizarre Creations way back in the days of the first PlayStation F1 games. It's really sad to see them go. They are a very talented studio indeed. Why did they sell out to Activision in the first place?
Always loved Bizarre ever since playing the F1 games on the playstation (it was them until in between PGR and PGR2's release did i realise they had made those F1 games which i still love to this day as they certainly to me are still playable. Hopefully they can get out of this and start afresh (with or without the same name) because they are a good developer.
You do know that the Amiga and Mega Drive game Killing Game Show (Fatal Rewind) was made by the founder of Bizzare Creations and so was Wiz & Liz for the Mega Drive. They've been around for a very long time. Yakumo
There have been rumours for a while that Microsoft is looking to produce a new Project Gotham... and now Bizarre Creations is looking for a new home - the timing couldn't be any better for a reunion of these former partners, but will Microsoft take Bizarre back or simply farm out any future racers to its other similar development teams such as the creators of Forza? Then again, there has also been a rumour doing the rounds concerning Sony possibly showing interest in Bizarre as well, though I'd be concerned Bizarre would get lost in the company's already large wealth of racing specialists. After all, Sony has Polyphony and the WipEout team to name just two examples.
Hopefully, it will survive. Don't know about you but when i saw and player Blur, it felt uninspiring and bland. Specially if you remember MSR and PGR. Even Split / Second tried something different. I hope the team survives, going indie or being acquired by MS or Sony. PD certainly needs more people (has around 140). They would certainly benefit of the 3d modelers and track / art designers.
I agree, Blur was pretty bland. It was on my buy list but after the demo, well..... I have bought the new bond game though. That is actually pretty good The reviews of that are a load of crap. Yakumo
I wouldn't assume they'll be getting a nice pay-off. I imagine they'll be concerned as they didn't bring in much money and Infinity Ward who made Activision lots of money were still treated like shit.
