Bizarre Creations Dies on Friday

[The Random One]

The problem was that we made Blur; real cars in realistic cities with power ups. Who were we selling that game to?

To me, of course. I blame their marketing dept for not trying to sell the game to me personally. I'd have bought it. (Seriously, I love that concept and will probably pick the game up as soon as money allows.)

Too bad that it went down, but it seems to have done so gracefully. It's a good think that Activision is on the tightrope as to not repeat their Infinity Ward fiasco. Maybe a few more years and we'll be willing to give it the benefit of doubt, like EA.

 

[frago roc]

They made that shitty "The Club" game... What a mess that was...

 

[Weaver]

Well based on the Blur demo, there was no way to rebind my controls on the PC so I didn't even think about getting the game.

 

[Wardnath]

What a shame. I still play Geometry Wars 2 (232 million in Evolved and 38 million in Waves), what an awesome game that is.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm really worried. I mean... what if we get a monopoly? All these companies closing, it could happen.

EA, Valve, Activision, Microsoft, and Nintendo are entirely safe. You're fine.

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.

 

[faefrost]

It's really odd Blur did so badly because it was an awesome game, maybe they shouldn't have put it out there with NSF and Split Second out aswell.
And Geometry Wars was pure gold.

Too bad really, but I'm sure someone will buy them EA or Activision, sooner or later those will be the only names out there.

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.

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.

 

[Wolf Devastator]

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!!! :_(

 

[emeraldrafael]

I'm really worried. I mean... what if we get a monopoly? All these companies closing, it could happen.

EA, Valve, Activision, Microsoft, and Nintendo are entirely safe. You're fine.

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.

Oh joy, the three most uninventive companies. How GRAND
/sarcasm.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm really worried. I mean... what if we get a monopoly? All these companies closing, it could happen.

EA, Valve, Activision, Microsoft, and Nintendo are entirely safe. You're fine.

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.

Oh joy, the three most uninventive companies. How GRAND
/sarcasm.

EA's getting better.

And besides, no monopoly. That was the original point.

 

[Jumplion]

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!"

 

[Nouw]

That's a shame, I would have loved to play Geometry Wars 3!

Does this mean Microsoft gets all their future profit from XBLA?

 

[vivster]

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!"

you make it sound like there was no benefit for the developers at all
EVERY developer WANTS a big publisher...the bigger the better
and as in every business...the higher you climb the deeper you can fall
nobody stays on top forever

 

[Mekado]

I'm really worried. I mean... what if we get a monopoly? All these companies closing, it could happen.

EA, Valve, Activision, Microsoft, and Nintendo are entirely safe. You're fine.

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'd add Ubisoft to your list of "guaranteed survival" studios.

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.

 

[PlaidHatter]

No matter how bad a studio is, they should never be forced to shut their doors...

No one's "forcing" anyone to shut down. The simple fact of the matter is that they're a toxic asset to Actiblizz.

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?

 

[CactusPants]

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.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Does this mean PGR 4 was the last one..? Thats so sad. What a great series it was.

 

[NLS]

Hopefully the Geometry Wars franchise won't die with them (and perhaps even get more titles out for PC, please?)

 

[Vitor Goncalves]

I'm really worried. I mean... what if we get a monopoly? All these companies closing, it could happen.

EA, Valve, Activision, Microsoft, and Nintendo are entirely safe. You're fine.

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.

Oh joy, the three most uninventive companies. How GRAND
/sarcasm.

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.