Bizarre Creations Dies on Friday
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
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EA, Valve, Activision, Microsoft, and Nintendo are entirely safe. You're fine.emeraldrafael said:
Every time a studio shuts down, the more money can be given to the other companies, and thus the chances of another company dying decrease. This is just a really bad streak.
I think part of the problem with Blur was it was trying to blend two different things at the same moment that some really decent versions of those individual things were coming out for their respective platforms.Mr.K. said:
I can't speak for the X-Box releases, but the PS3 came out almost on top of several other realistic racers, plus Modnation Racers, the PS3's weird bastard racing cart love child of Mariokart and Little Big Planet. While Blur may have been a fun and interesting Arcade Racer, the PS3 market was already knowing what they wanted. The power up cutsey kart type racers wanted MNR. The more realistic race fans were holding out for GT5. There really was no middle ground fro Blur to capture. Their "suck it pinky" ad campaign while distinctive really didn't do much to solidify where the game was going to fall play wise either.
Graarrrghhh!!
I've never played PGR, but it can't be that different than any other racing game...
Come on news people, what we really care about is Geometry Wars!!! :_(
I've never played PGR, but it can't be that different than any other racing game...
Come on news people, what we really care about is Geometry Wars!!! :_(
This doesn't really help my opinion of Activision, despite the failings on Bizarre's half. This only makes me see even more that Activision just absorb companies, chew them up, and spit them back out. Seriously, with Red Octane, Infinity Ward, the Guitar Hero guys, and now Bizarre, it's a wonder how they still have studios to pry off of.
To paraphrase the guy who did standup for the recent Interactive Achievment Awards, "Activision, you're like James Cameron, you make record-breaking hit after record-breaking hit...and absolutely nobody wants to deal with you!"
To paraphrase the guy who did standup for the recent Interactive Achievment Awards, "Activision, you're like James Cameron, you make record-breaking hit after record-breaking hit...and absolutely nobody wants to deal with you!"
I'd add Ubisoft to your list of "guaranteed survival" studios.lacktheknack said:
This is a bit sad that a studio closes but the saving grace in a thing like this (economic crunch= leisure-based businesses suffer) is that only the strongest will survive, whether by sheer money stockpile (EA/Activision/Ubisoft/most AAA studios) or a lot of talent, for the smaller devs.
No one's "forcing" anyone to shut down. The simple fact of the matter is that they're a toxic asset to Actiblizz.IamQ said:
A common misconception is that if someone makes a bad game, they don't make money. It's not just that they don't make money, they lose money. In other words, it was costing Activision money to own a company that makes crappy games.
Try to look at that as an investor rather than gamer; if you're Bobby Kotick (or whoever) and have final say over the matter, which of those looks like the better option for the fitness of your company?
Damn shame, I actually quite enjoyed Bloodstone and Geometry Wars. Things like this make me remember how much the games business is about business and not just creativity.
Off-topic: Anyone else think that they got the stealth right in Bloodstone? I know the AI was easy to exploit, but the stealth just felt right.
Off-topic: Anyone else think that they got the stealth right in Bloodstone? I know the AI was easy to exploit, but the stealth just felt right.
Hell yeah, you will be stuck with the same franchises for the next 1000 years, and Valve will still be thinking about releasing Episode 3. Thank God we got indie developers that come and go but bring some fresh air into the gaming universe.emeraldrafael said:
Market contraction. Death of niche' markets, and the continuation of a very very select few titles.
This trend became clear to me when Halo Reach's online community numbers plummeted after only 3 weeks of play (120,000 to 40,000 between opening launch and present.) following Black Ops.
It seems more and more people are becoming attached to only 1 or 2 core games and eschewing the rest.
Now, if the market were as healthy as we're meant to believe, why then are these keystone games turning record profits while everyone else is getting the axe? Success should breed diversity. Instead, the rest of the market is being quashed.
I'm not sure when this vicious cycle will end either. Probably when Activision finally drives that stake through EA's heart, and then turns their focus on 2k Games or Ubisoft.
This trend became clear to me when Halo Reach's online community numbers plummeted after only 3 weeks of play (120,000 to 40,000 between opening launch and present.) following Black Ops.
It seems more and more people are becoming attached to only 1 or 2 core games and eschewing the rest.
Now, if the market were as healthy as we're meant to believe, why then are these keystone games turning record profits while everyone else is getting the axe? Success should breed diversity. Instead, the rest of the market is being quashed.
I'm not sure when this vicious cycle will end either. Probably when Activision finally drives that stake through EA's heart, and then turns their focus on 2k Games or Ubisoft.
As much as I and the rest of The Escapist hates Activision, I think a lot of the blame here lies with the other publishers looking to rip-off Activision for the talent in Bizarre for waiting for them to close. Of course, the marketing for Blur was indeed crap.
I've probably sunk hundreds of hours into the first two Project Gotham Racing games alone and considerable amount of time into the third one, that series was excellent, but I didn't get around to playing the fourth unfortunately. However this isn't much of a surprise, they haven't released anything good in a quite awhile and they certainly where losing momentum. Blur, as others have said, was too varied to score any sort of definite fan-base and Geometry Wars, while awesome, isn't enough to support an entire company. It's a shame, but I'm sure I think that a lot of their employees would have enough experience now to find jobs elsewhere.