Bizarre Creations Dies on Friday

[C95J]

wow, I actually liked the PGR series as well, never got Blur though (got Split/Second instead)

oh well, never had many other of their games anyway...

 

[Atmos Duality]

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.

 

[Bob_F_It]

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.

 

[Fire Daemon]

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.

 

[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!"

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

Of course there's much benefit of having a large publisher, but not at the cost of your soul! I just wish some developers had the integrity to stick with their guns. A problem with big publishers is that you're at their mercy. And big publishers like Activision, and to a lesser extent EA, are reluctant to fund projects that aren't a "safe" return of investment, as shown by the countless Guitar Hero sequels, Call of Duty's and their map packs, and James Bond games (I highly doubt Bizarre wanted to go with that project).

Fine, it's a business, that doesn't mean you can't have some integrity in your balls. Or something.

 

[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

Of course there's much benefit of having a large publisher, but not at the cost of your soul! I just wish some developers had the integrity to stick with their guns. A problem with big publishers is that you're at their mercy. And big publishers like Activision, and to a lesser extent EA, are reluctant to fund projects that aren't a "safe" return of investment, as shown by the countless Guitar Hero sequels, Call of Duty's and their map packs, and James Bond games (I highly doubt Bizarre wanted to go with that project).

Fine, it's a business, that doesn't mean you can't have some integrity in your balls. Or something.

i think it means just that
integrity can't put food on your table

 

[Jumplion]

i think it means just that
integrity can't put food on your table

The cynic inside me agrees. And the sad thing is, my inner optimist agrees as well (a little, anyway).