“Over the past three years since our purchase of Bizarre Creations,” an Activision spokesperson told Kotaku today, “the fundamentals of the racing genre have changed significantly. Although we made a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur, it did not find a commercial audience. Bizarre is a very talented team of developers, however, because of the broader economic factors impacting the market, we are exploring our options regarding the future of the studio, including a potential sale of the business.”
Another option would be the studio’s closure.
Rumors of the Liverpool-based development studio’s imminent closure about this afternoon, with Twitter in particular abuzz with word that Bizarre Creations’ owner, Activision, is planning to shut the studio down. Sources close to the studio have informed Develop that some 200 members of the Bizarre Creations staff have been put on three months notice.
Activision purchased Bizarre Creations in 2007. Since the purchase Bizarre has created two titles for the publisher: The well-received racing combat game Blur and it’s most recent release, James Bond 007: Blood Stone, which has received mostly average reviews thus far.
The loss of Bizarre Creations could have a profound effect on the already shrinking racing genre. Though this month sees the release of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from EA and Sony’s Gran Turismo 5, the racing genre is nowhere near as prolific as it once was.
Mr Waffle
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 10:24 AMMaybe it would’ve helped if Blur didn’t come out at like, the exact same time as Split/Second, which was, you know, basically identical (at least it appeared to be- I haven’t bothered trying S/S since I already own Blur)…
Oh, and Blur having a singleplayer mode that lasted more than about 2 hours would’ve been nice, too.
Nazxul360
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 12:28 PMTry upping the dificulty, brother. And aim to get all lights on all events. It took me a good week of heavy playing to finish it (and that wasn’t even on the hardest setting).
MILDLY IRATE VIDEO GAME GUY
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 10:29 AMPity Activision are probably keeping the Geometry Wars IP.
Bjorn Bednarek
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 10:50 AMI’d say racing games are in rude health right now:
Out now and great:
Forza 3 – still growing with DLC
NFS:Shift – underrated racer with the best career progression ever implemented
Dirt 2 – so many modes!
F1 2010 – finally an F1 game, which although buggy in terms of AI is a great drive
NFS:HP – rating well (although I see it as a re-skinned Burnout Paradise City)
Blur – a fun take on Mario Kart
Split/Second – an even more fun take on Mario Kart
Real Racing – great portable racing game
PGR4 – still the most style orientated racing game
rFactor – a great indie alternative with a huge fanbase and lots of mods
Race 07/Race On/GTR Evo – also huge number of mods and a solid and tunable driving model
GT Legends – THE place to race historic cars
Coming soon:
GT5, NFS:Shift2, Dirt3, Real Racing 2, Test Drive Unlimited 2
And the G27 wheel is out, meaning the G25 is cheaper.
I can’t think of a better time to be playing racing games.
paulus
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 12:15 PMHas anybody above actually played Split/Second? It’s not at all like Blur, and even less like Mario Kart.
Biggest point of difference is you don’t have weapons, only location-based events, like a bridge exploding, or a ship sliding off the pier.
Ben J
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 12:34 PMYeah, I bought Split/Second because everybody said it’s so similiar to MK. It’s nothing like it!
Anyway, that’s really disappointing news, because geometry wars is an awesome game and it’ll be sad to see bizzare creations (probably) lose the IP to activision.
Bjorn Bednarek
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 5:45 PMMy reference to it being like Mario Kart is in terms of it being an over the top parody of racing.
Obviously the mechanics of earning and spending rewards and the nature of those rewards is different, but basically you drive in a certain way to get the ability to boost your own performance or hinder that of your opponents. In Blur, Mario Kart and Split Second.
Marcus DeGiglio
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 6:02 PMSplit Second is really different to Mario Kart; it’s all about track memorisation and driving skill, which I think limits its pick-up-and-play qualities.
Although, there’s one thing they have in common:
The incredibly frustrating rubber-banding AI.
Aron Mayo
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 3:22 PMMicrosoft really needs to buy Bizarre. They’re rumoured to be searching for a new developer for PGR5 so why not get the original creators back? Sounds like the perfect opportunity to me.
Bizarre has been one of the most consistent developers over the last decade so hopefully they don’t disappear, it would be a sad day for me and the millions of PGR/Blur/GeoWars fans.
James Mac
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 4:45 PMI’d really like Microsoft Game Studios to get back into motion.
MS spent the past few years shedding studios, and now Sony is making a point of showing their in house games.