Activision closes another developer - Bizarre Creations

Plague_Injected

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This from develop-online.net:

The Blur, Geometry Wars and Project Gotham Racing studio closes on Friday; what will be its legacy?

On Friday, February 18th, Bizarre Creations’ Liverpool studio will turn off the lights, lock the windows and close its doors for the final time.

The group made around twenty games over 15 years, growing to around 200 staff at the peak of its success.

The studio officially formed in 1994 under the Bizarre Creations brand, but industry veteran Martyn Chudley had in fact established the outfit back in 1988 under a different name.

Its big break came at the dawn of the first PlayStation – Bizarre had been commissioned a Formula 1 project for the new console.

Formula 1 ‘97 was a commercial success that established Bizarre’s reputation for quality racing games...

In November 2010, when UK dev scene appeared to be in the midst of a financial storm, Activision announced it was exploring the possibility of selling off Bizarre Creations.

A number of companies, including Microsoft, had shown an interest in buying the studio. None committed to a final purchase, however, and in January Activision announced it had given up on trying to sell the group.

Bizarre Creation’s management agreed on Activision’s recommendation to close the studio. Its 200 staff are already being snapped up and snaffled by rival firms – some of which were alleged to have held off saving the studio, because buying redundant developers is a far cheaper option. That, if true, demonstrates how little a developer’s legacy is worth even to this day.
 
Damn shame , super talented team with so many great games.

They tried to sell them off but no bites , another great developer bites the dust :(
 
Blur, PGR, Metropolis Street Racer...way the hell back to The Killing Game Show. Well, this sucks.
 
These giant publishers keep buying up studios and then closing them five years later. That can't continue indefinitely.
 
In the end all we will see is Call of Duty's being pumped out every month with SC1 graphics that need 3 GTX 580s to run on lowest settings.
 
These giant publishers keep buying up studios and then closing them five years later. That can't continue indefinitely.

It'll continue as long as the general public has the stomach for more big franchises that turn out games every year. The amount of money they make of a franchise like COD versus say .. a quality game like Blur? Or even Geo Wars? Completely dwarfs it. Corporations in the business of making money .. they don't care if it comes from a recycled franchise or an original property.

Its a sad trend that will probably continue well into the future , the only thing we can do as gamers is support games that do not fall under the "rinse and release" category and instead bring new and original game play to the table. Until that starts happening in greater numbers , expect more closures.
 
It'll continue as long as the general public has the stomach for more big franchises that turn out games every year. The amount of money they make of a franchise like COD versus say .. a quality game like Blur? Or even Geo Wars? Completely dwarfs it. Corporations in the business of making money .. they don't care if it comes from a recycled franchise or an original property.

Its a sad trend that will probably continue well into the future , the only thing we can do as gamers is support games that do not fall under the "rinse and release" category and instead bring new and original game play to the table. Until that starts happening in greater numbers , expect more closures.

I reckon new COD release popularity will have to start dying out soon, I hope. Surely people are cottoning on to the fact its just the same game each year with different kill streak rewards, a couple new perks and the same graphics. I got bored with it after WAW.
 
I reckon new COD release popularity will have to start dying out soon, I hope. Surely people are cottoning on to the fact its just the same game each year with different kill streak rewards, a couple new perks and the same graphics. I got bored with it after WAW.

You are mistaken then. 12-14 year olds seem to be so fascinated by this generic crap. They would buy the same game every year.
 
I reckon new COD release popularity will have to start dying out soon, I hope. Surely people are cottoning on to the fact its just the same game each year with different kill streak rewards, a couple new perks and the same graphics. I got bored with it after WAW.


I'm hoping BF3 is the final death blow the COD4 recycling fest. then maybe we could see if they can actually release something original with a brand new engine for once.
 
There were six of us here at my work that purchased Blur just to beat up on each other. I don't understand how that game is considered a failure. It was a blast and just needed some additional tracks or a track editor at the very least.
 
Blur failed because of the hackers and Bizarre's inability to patch it, or hell even comment on it.

They shit on the community, and they deserve to be shut down. They sucked major balls on that game and I was 0 day buyer. The game was fun, their inability to give 2 shits, wasn't.
 
Blur failed because of the hackers and Bizarre's inability to patch it, or hell even comment on it.

They shit on the community, and they deserve to be shut down. They sucked major balls on that game and I was 0 day buyer. The game was fun, their inability to give 2 shits, wasn't.

I'm sure Activision, the company that owned them and managed their finances.. and knew they were going to shut them down had nothing to do with it.
 
I'm sure Activision, the company that owned them and managed their finances.. and knew they were going to shut them down had nothing to do with it.

Blur released long before Acti considered closing the studio.
 
Blur released long before Acti considered closing the studio.

Unless you can read minds thats not even a claim you can possibly make.

Blur was probably the deciding factor on whether or not they got closed down. I have a hard time believing they where not considering it before blur.
 
Unless you can read minds thats not even a claim you can possibly make.

Blur was probably the deciding factor on whether or not they got closed down. I have a hard time believing they where not considering it before blur.

Why would they be considering it prior to their first release? Blur was the first game they releases with Activision. The poor sales of it and Bond are likely what caused this.
 
Why would they be considering it prior to their first release? Blur was the first game they releases with Activision. The poor sales of it and Bond are likely what caused this.

You ever bought something you where unsure of? Ever taken a gamble on something relatively cheap? They only paid ~ $67 million for them and it could have really paid off, instead they released a bunch of crap.

Just 6 months after the release of blur there was this going on. In which this was said:

The publisher said: "Although we made a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur, it did not find a commercial audience."

Something tells me that blur was the deciding factor in all of this and this was being discussed long before the launch of blur. Sounds to me like they knew they where taking a gamble and had the pink slips ready all along. If they do well keep them around if not fire them and now they own the PGR IP win win for activision.

Its a lot of speculation to be sure but no more than you saying they where not considering this before hand.
 
It's unfortunate that they have to close, but that's how things work in this industry. You can't expect Activision to keep funding a studio that has no profitability with their products.
If you do, you have ZERO business sense and should probably just be quiet, because you know nothing of what you're talking about...
 
Maybe a stupid question, but will this affect Blur online play (PC)?

Most likely, yes. The main servers will eventually be shut down. You can obviously play in other servers that are not kept by Bizarre Creations and/or Activision.
 
What is stupid is that Blur is not a bad game. They failed to advertise and support it properly. That blame falls on Activision - at least for the advertising.
 
What is stupid is that Blur is not a bad game. They failed to advertise and support it properly. That blame falls on Activision - at least for the advertising.

According to some devs (supposedly) from Bizzare part of the blame falls on the studio itself. Supposedly they had no idea what market they were aiming for and made it hard to market in general.
 
What is stupid is that Blur is not a bad game. They failed to advertise and support it properly. That blame falls on Activision - at least for the advertising.

A bad game is not determined by one person (i.e. you). If it doesn't sell, it's either a game that doesn't appeal to the majority or indeed the advertising wasn't that good. However, the best advertising in the world can't save a bad game. So even if many were lured in by the advertisement, the game just didn't do it for them and "word of mouth" happened.

This is true in almost every area of the entertainment business.
 
A bad game is not determined by one person (i.e. you). If it doesn't sell, it's either a game that doesn't appeal to the majority or indeed the advertising wasn't that good. However, the best advertising in the world can't save a bad game. So even if many were lured in by the advertisement, the game just didn't do it for them and "word of mouth" happened.

This is true in almost every area of the entertainment business.

Although that stands true, while its irrelevant at this point what I find intriguing is that Blur had good reviews (over here at least) and everybody who I spoke with who played the game seemed to enjoy it.

Most likely, yes. The main servers will eventually be shut down. You can obviously play in other servers that are not kept by Bizarre Creations and/or Activision.

That's a shame, I was going to get Blur eventually because I wanted to try out the multi-player...
 
Yep - sad stuff. I just discovered Blurr a few days ago, and I'm liking it a lot so far! Day late, dollar short I guess.
 
Although that stands true, while its irrelevant at this point what I find intriguing is that Blur had good reviews (over here at least) and everybody who I spoke with who played the game seemed to enjoy it.

Well, good reviews do not change the fact that the game didn't appeal to a majority of people. As I said, this is true for most areas of the entertainment business. As an example of another area, a movie can have great reviews, but fail miserably at the box office.

Disastrous results in retail for a game, is an almost sure death sentence for that particular franchise or the studio that developed it.
 
Although that stands true, while its irrelevant at this point what I find intriguing is that Blur had good reviews (over here at least) and everybody who I spoke with who played the game seemed to enjoy it.

That is more than obvious; I perfectly understood your point the first time, that is why I also mentioned that --while I perfectly acknowledge the fact it is not representative of the gamer audience as a whole-- I have mostly heard of people enjoying the game from who I have talked to, be it in my immediate surrounding or online etc. In other words, I had the impression that people liked this game which explains my surprise at its commercial fail. That is all I'm saying.
 
Well, good reviews do not change the fact that the game didn't appeal to a majority of people. As I said, this is true for most areas of the entertainment business. As an example of another area, a movie can have great reviews, but fail miserably at the box office.

Disastrous results in retail for a game, is an almost sure death sentence for that particular franchise or the studio that developed it.
These types of phenomena are due to marketing, not mass appeal of the product. As you noted in one of your earlier comments, if a game (or movie) sells and the consumer enjoys it, that consumer will spread the word. Since word of mouth regarding Blur is positive, that would tend to indicate the advertising failure was at the initial "luring" stage and not the after-purchase "opinion" stage.
 
These types of phenomena are due to marketing, not mass appeal of the product. As you noted in one of your earlier comments, if a game (or movie) sells and the consumer enjoys it, that consumer will spread the word. Since word of mouth regarding Blur is positive, that would tend to indicate the advertising failure was at the initial "luring" stage and not the after-purchase "opinion" stage.

They advertised the crap out of this game when it was coming out. I think its less about marketing and a lot more about it being a niche game that dont appeal to everyone.

My initial impression of it from the commercials/trailers was "mario kart with real cars" and it just did not appeal to me.
 
They advertised the crap out of this game when it was coming out. I think its less about marketing and a lot more about it being a niche game that dont appeal to everyone.

My initial impression of it from the commercials/trailers was "mario kart with real cars" and it just did not appeal to me.
Doesn't matter to me.

Gamers aren't responsible for studios closing. It's not our responsibility to purchase products for "causes" (like keeping indie devs afloat). If devs don't want to be sold out, they shouldn't sell themselves out when deep pockets come knocking at their doors.
 
Doesn't matter to me.

Gamers aren't responsible for studios closing. It's not our responsibility to purchase products for "causes" (like keeping indie devs afloat). If devs don't want to be sold out, they shouldn't sell themselves out when deep pockets come knocking at their doors.

I agree, thats why i said above that the dev is responsible for running them into the ground. I dont get why anyone would blame activision, they ponied up the money and the dev blew it what did they think would happen?
 
Are you kidding? These guys ran then selves into the ground at the expense of activision...

They were doing great when they were running things, before Activision bought them. After the purchase Activision was the one running things.

So who ran them into the ground? Activision.
 
Always the case with developer aquisitions. Developer makes kickass game after game for years, gets bought by publisher who expects miracles and forces developer to churn out games with stupid time constraints. Developer makes average game year after year. Gets canned.

Fuck Activision.
 
They were doing great when they were running things, before Activision bought them. After the purchase Activision was the one running things.

So who ran them into the ground? Activision.

They where not doing "great" the only thing they had worth a shit was PGR and it was up against Forza so never sold as well as it could. There is a reason they where bought up so cheap and it was not because they where doing "great". :rolleyes:
 
They were doing great when they were running things, before Activision bought them. After the purchase Activision was the one running things.

So who ran them into the ground? Activision.

Not really. PGR4 wasn't as good as PGR3 and the Club was freaking terrible. Blur wasn't a bad game, but seem no one knew who to market it towards so they went with the "market it to everyone" approach, which really doesn't work for a niche title.
 
another one bites the dust? hopefully those guys will find a new job they made some good games
 
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-24-why-activision-closed-bizarre

"It was a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances," he said. "The landscape of the industry has changed massively even in the time from when Bizarre was acquired. In particular getting a new IP noticed at this stage of the console cycle combined with the global economic situation meaning gamers are less willing to 'take a risk' is really difficult.

Sad , but he makes some good points. And it sounds like Activision did give them a fair amout of time to find other jobs and try to shop around the studio for sale.
 
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