Bizarre Creations (PGR) Closed by Activision

[NiX]

It's all but confirmed by Activision themselves. 90 days notice has been given to 200 employees. The assumption is that Blur and 007 Blood Diamond didn't sell well enough. One can only hope MS picks them up for their rumored PGR5.

Happy Holidays!

Edit:

Over the past three years since our purchase of Bizarre Creations, the fundamentals of the racing genre have changed significantly. Although we made a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur, it did not find a commercial audience. Bizarre is a very talented team of developers, however, because of the broader economic factors impacting the market, we are exploring our options regarding the future of the studio, including a potential sale of the business.

[MisterNoisy]

It was really only a matter of time once they got picked up by Activision - two flops in a row pretty much made it a done deal, and Activision had to know that the new Bond game was going to tank well before now, especially when the movie got shitcanned.

[Ard]

Here I personally would have thought that the geometry wars franchise would have made enough to keep them afloat, and that hasn't been mentioned at all in any of the press releases I've read.  This really seems to be a case of "so what have you done for us lately?".

[Typhon]

Was Blur not good?

[jakonovski]

Was Blur not good?

It's actually really good, but the styling was way too generic to generate sales.

[Malakili]

Was Blur not good?

It's actually really good, but the styling was way too generic to generate sales.

I bought it near release and was pretty depressed to see stuff like "100 players online" during peak hours, I'm sure multiplayer games are hard to find at all these days, though I no longer really play it anyway.  Its really was/is a good game though, it captured that mario kart feel while having enough realism to feel a little beefier.  Maybe compared to some other big names in the racing genre though, it just wasn't a big enough sell, or maybe all that people who want Mario kart just play mario kart and there isn't as much overlap with the racing sim crowd as they thought.  As someone who doesn't play racing sims at all though, I really liked it and thought it was a lot of fun.

[Velorath]

Was Blur not good?

Blur was good but -

a) It was not marketed well.  People were confused because it looked like an arcade racer, but gameplay-wise was actually closer to Mario Kart-style gameplay.  Even as someone who generally pays a lot of attention to game news, I wasn't aware of this until a few months before the game's release.

b) It was also released at the same time as Split/Second and Modnation Racers (I think Split/Second released a week before the other two).  Speculation is that they might have cannibalized each other's sales

[Rendakor]

Velorath, you make a good point. I know that's why I overlooked it; I bought Modnation Racers and had little interest in looking for another MK-style game.

[NiX]

Not to mention Activision decided to pit their Bond game against Goldeneye, but that might be seen as no big deal considering Goldeneye did OK.

[Azazel]

90 days. Well, at least that gets them through Christmas. Hopefully they can get picked up by someone else.

Can you play Blur with 2 humans on seperate consoles vs AI for the rest of the field?

[Margalis]

Blur had some of the worst advertising I can remember.

Basically it was "Do you like Mario Kart? Well Mario Kart is for FAGS!"

I'm not sure what brilliant marketer decided the best way to sell a Mario Kart game is to slag on Mario Kart. Hey guys, you know that franchise that's sold like a bazillion copies? Let's base our advertising on the premise that it's lame! In general I think ads that focus on the negatives of some other game are weak, but especially when the game you've singled out is the basis for your own game and one of the most popular games of all time.

I guess the idea was that it was a Mario Kart game that appealed to the typical 12-year-old racist XBL douche.

[Rendakor]

That commercial was pretty funny, although it didn't make me want to play their game.

[Malakili]

I guess the idea was that it was a Mario Kart game that appealed to the typical 12-year-old racist XBL douche.

This seems like it.  Do you like Mario Kart, but are also a MAN NOW and don't have time for that kiddy shit any more. PLAY BLUR.  Funny thing is I bought it before I ever saw that commercial and was thinking "Oh this is a pretty nice homage to Mario Kart"

[Margalis]

It's like making a Wii Fit clone then being "do you like Wii Fit? Well Wii Fit is for housewives and fatties!" At a high level it's just a weird strategy. I'm kind of reminded of the old Sega commercials where they tried to make Mario look super slow and boring and Sonic really awesome. But that was more acknowledging that they were the same genre and trying to make Sonic seem better by comparison. The point of the Blur commercial isn't really that Blur is better than Mario Kart or that Blur is even a good game, it's just that Mario Kart is for babies. It's more anti-MK than pro-Blur. "Mario Kart is for babies. (Also buy our game, it's kind of like Mario Kart!)"

Then again hindsight is 20/20. I suppose in theory there could have been a huge audience of people who like the idea of Mario Kart but want something more dude-bro 360. I heard the game itself is pretty good, so kind of a shame.

[Azazel]

I just looked up the ad. And I guess I get what they're trying to do. But, meh. Lame.

Then looked up Blur. It's several dollars too expensive still to be something I'll pick up 2 copies of on a whim to play whenever. And I'm not fussed enough to bother with picking up RIZGHZT NOW for the slightly higher price.