Bizarre Creations Shutting Their Doors on Friday

The developers behind such projects as Project Gotham Racing and the much under-appreciated Blur are being closed down by Activision, not sold.

[SwampCroc]

as one of the top 200 on the Geometry Wars 2: Retro Evolved Leaderboards I am saddened by this article.. Well, in general people losing their jobs is sad. and these people definitely made good games. Another reason to solidify why relations with Activision isn't recommended.

and I was trying to get ahold of the guys to talk about upgrades to G Wars. like statistical stuff. like how many points before you used a bomb, or how many points before you lost 1 life in certain modes, total gates gone through, total amount of geos(the green multipliers)... stuff like that... but now it won't be possible... ah, my dreams shattered...

either way if any of the developers that lost their job read this.... then please find a new company. I wish you luck in that! and try and envision and create a game that is superior to Geometry Wars... even though I know it will be tough...

sorry... rant over. I just have ideas... I really, really love that game. I seriously think I am up there on most logged hours playing.

[Maddens Raiders]

cares? people lose their jobs everyday. Get over it, they'll find well paying jobs or make them.

[vishant101]

its not about peps losing jobs its about the gaming industry losing a quality dev

i luvd pgr

[unknownhero1123]

i'll remember what you said when you lose a job you love, a job where you had great co-workers to work with and memories that go with it. Also, what makes you so sure that everyone that lost thier job will find another one? compassion, not available to heartless morons who only see numbers instead of souls.

[nskrishna2]

Remember these words when you lose a job. People like you make me sick

[ReservoirDog316]

Don't be so hard on him/her/it. He/She/It is probably just a kid that has no idea how hard it is on adults to lose their jobs.

Either way, hope these guys the best of luck. Hopefully someone realizes the talent activision's throwing away and picks them up.

[morkendo23]

what'd??? no more champion of norrath??? DAMN u craptivision. bobby kotex up ur nose and smell it deeply. or is blizzard who make CHAMPION OF NORRATH??

[Hitman0769]

That's crap, hopefully the people behind the company start up a new company and recover.

[SwampCroc]

that's what I was telling my friend on a backroad just the other day... like if I were them just start over with the same guys... but I mean realistically that has to be kinda hard... not all developers probably have money just sitting around to invest in a business venture.... but man if I had the talent and ambition to do it I would do it...

[blazsox]

It's just a shame that Activision never really took the steps to promote their work.

[AndrewE]

i really loved Blur and PGR city scape themed arcade racing of PGR

[Frenza]

Blur was something special. Just a shame that it got overlooked by most people.

[DaBadGuy]

What is going on! Activision has been on the warpath the past two weeks, shutting down studios left and right, cancelling Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk, opening a new studio for CoD and MAYBE looking to pick up Take Two?

I really hope they don't get their hands on Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead, Bioshock, etc. They killed Guitar Hero, they are killing CoD.

Nothing good can come from Bobby getting GTA.

[blazsox]

Take Two fought EA's takeover. While it is claimed Take Two is talking to Activision, I doubt we'll see a merger between them and Activision. Take Two financially is worth more than they were when EA attempted a takeover.

However stranger things have happened.

[DarkBlood]

doesnt rockstar publish grand theft auto or something?

[palaeomerus]

Take 2 does. Rockstar is a Dev Studio.

[PhinneousD]

Kotick is a ginger.. what do u expect from a person without a soul?

[RockmanII7]

Hopefully MS hires a good chunk of the workers like they did when Pandemic got shut down.

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

Yeah, definetelly want to see MS go back to joining some talent and open more studios. I've been more of a PS3 guy this gen, but last gen the Xbox rocked, it was an amazing console filled with amazing exclusive games.

[earbus]

The weather effects they pulled in pgr4 were sweet been playing their games since msr very sad day indeed.

[palaeomerus]

Yeah the kudo-racers will be something I miss. I hope MS develops another one and hires from the Bizarre crew.

[mcstorm]

I agree hope MS or even Sony picks them up. But this has to stop just because one company brings out a game that is not selling well dose not mean they have to close down. I think if MS had managed to buy them they would of got back to making some money again. Sad day for us gamers.

[Agheil]

It shall be missed

[theonlylolking]

True to that. BLur is very good. Activision does not know what they are doing.

[Odion]

Present ARMS!

Fire!

Fire!

Rest in peace old friend, your studio may be gone, but your Geometry Wars lives on in all of us!

[StarScream4Ever]

*salute*

[Jack-Pyro]

*plays the bagpipes*

[MrBeatdown]

Sucks to see them shut down. Blur was awesome.

Microsoft should have acquired them and had them work on PGR5.

[Mr_Shuttlezworth]

MIcrosoft doesnt aquire studios... Instead they throw away millions for timed DLC.

MS said it themselves. They are all about kinect from here on out.

[MrBeatdown]

Sad but true.

MS had an opportunity to bring back a quality hardcore IP with the original dev, but they opted not to. It just goes to show how little effort they are putting into developing games for the hardcore.

[Mr_Shuttlezworth]

Microsoft is losing customers because of their business strategy. Hardcore 360 users will undoubtedly move on to PS3. As it is, microsoft's hardcore offerings were already sparse. It seems now that it will get even worse...

All the while sony has been bombarding gamers with AAA exclusives almost non-stop for over 2 years with games spanning all genres. Even a fanboy can not argue that fact.

With tax season in full effect, nearly all of my friends who didn't have a PS3 have one now... The only real reason i keep around my 360 is for Gears 3 and Rock Band, in which i have invested in a ton of DLC tracks.

[RememberThe357]

As the saying goes:

Activision, Where Developers Go To Die.

[Apone]

Amen!

"Tell him to aim for it's head, because it doesn't have a heart..."

[OpiZA]

PGR was so much fun. My favourite racer of this gen by miles... sad to see the studio go. Hope someone snaps up all those talented devs

[gamingisnotacrime]

sad

[STGuy1040]

Very sad to see people lose their jobs, especially a developer as creative as they were. No offense to Activision, but they're making a big mistake shutting down studios that developed great games like PGR.

[allyc4t]

PGR2 was is my favorite racing game of all time and Blur was my favorite racer last year. Sad to see these guys get canned like this, Activision never used them to their full potential.

Here's to hoping they can reform under a new name and make PGR5!

[Gen0ne]

That's a shame. Blur was good too. Definitely should've sold better. Here's hoping for a new start up company. Good luck.

[palaeomerus]

I think they should have done Blur as a downloadable game or a lower priced game as it was a little basic and short of content for $60, but it was a lot of fun and I bought it soon after the price dropped, which sadly was pretty soon after it launched.

[Syaz1]

if bungie was owned by activision, i would bet activision would close them down, and run away with the ip name, while fathers are left with nothing to feed their kids.

on-topic, i am really sad they were to go. i was one of the few who enjoyed blur very much. too bad the hate for activision overwhelmed what was one of their better games. hopefully someone would buy them, wait, actually i think sony could use a second gt studio to help with creating premium car textures, why not hire these guys?

anyways, RIP bizarre.

[sashimi]

I don't know why anyone would want a merger with Activision, its like saying here take our IPs and then fire us later along the way. Hope Bizarre employees find better employment.

[dragonelite]

Shame hope they can find work fast again.
Bye geometry wars 3.

[Firstkn1ghT]

Sad. PGR was the only arcade racer that actually did something different with a Kudo System. Made it very skillful. TY Bizzare Creations for creating one of the best arcade racer franchises ever. And yes, Blur was awesome too.

[KingDustero]

That's it. I am NEVER buying another Activision product new or used until Bobby and all of these other evil, greedy people who control Activion are gone and some decent people take their places.

All Actvision cares about now is is CoD. The game hasn't changed much at all in four or more years. Yet idiot continue to buy it. Now that has caused the cancellation of the Guitar Hero and DJ Hero series. The next true crime, which had potential was also canned. There are other things they've recently done too that I'm unable to recall ATM.

They also screwed things up with IW, but luckily those guys are now with EA. Hopefully they'll take CoD down, which would mean the demise of Activision hopefully.

Now however they're closing down Bizzare. They're made some pretty good games. They haven' sold as well as CoD, but they're good games. They actually took some risks with their games.

I'm tired of Activision's BS. I'm not longer supporting them and I don't see why anyone else should.

They are messing up the industry. We gamers deserve good games that are actually innovative. Not $60 expansions every year. We need to boycott all the crap like CoD Activsion keeps on throwing out. We need to take them down and bring the industry back to where innovative games we made often and actually made money.

[PandemicPrawn0]

Sad to see bizarre getting shut down. It reminds me of Pandemic’s heartbreaking closure thanks to those equally caring folk at EA.

But I would like to think that a new studio would rise from the ashes of BC. Hopefully with a nice little PGR 5 contract from Microsoft to start them off on a high note.

[paradiselost93]

It's sad, i really loved their games.

[larrym]

Damn this sucks. The first games I bought for my original Xbox and 360 were the PGR racing games. I used to play PGR2 for hours playing cat and mouse, and just racing with people in general. I made a lotta friends playing those games. I do hope they start up another company.

[PhinneousD]

Thanks Activision for destroying yet another talented studio.

[Corrwin]

How could this company not have made enough money to stay open?

What kind of deal did they have with Microsoft over Project Gotham?

[tudors]

Let's hope Bungie is not next, I appreciate these companies want to be independent but the large publishers just eat them up and spit them out, Activision are not dev friendly right now, though I think they should get off their ego trip because the COD series will soon be overshadowed by the new Battlefield, Crysis 2, the KZ series, and then theres whatever Bungie comes up with next because Halo needs a new friend, my point is that people see what's going on and I don't want to support a publisher that treats the devs badly. Bizzare creations will be back, I don't think MS will support them because they kind of jumped ship like bungie, having said that I don't see this as being personal so MS and Sony may at least support them if they have a new IP, but I don't see them moving inhouse.

[Lulabarbie]

I'm gonna miss it.

[esemce]

Because they didnt make COD levels of profit, very sad indeed.

[supremacy]

Take two you're next!!!

Thats the price of gaming productions these and yet some people are eager to see a new set of consoles.

I wonder how many mergers and closedowns we will see next gen.

Epicrytek

Capcom snk

Suckerpunch bought by one of the platform holders.

These things are becoming more apperant as times goes on.

I can already see EA and Activision trying to swallow who ever is left out there in the future.

That is if people continue to purcharse their games and paying for online passes and buying over price dlc.

[blazsox]

Keep in mind folks PGR is the property of Microsoft - a PGR5 can happen without Bizarre (though as a fan it wouldn't be the same).