Activision-Blizzard close/sell Bizarre Creations

Ulukai on 17/11/2010 at 17:17

(http://venturebeat.com/2010/11/16/activision-shuts-down-bizarre/) Link

Bizarre are Responsible for the Project Gotham Racing series (ho-hum, but lots of people like it), and Geometry Wars (Awesome)

Never heard of James Bond 007: Blood Stone (their latest release), but apparently it was mediocre and they've been effectively shit-canned by putting the company (http://www.geek.com/articles/games/has-activision-closed-geometry-wars-studio-bizarre-creations-20101116) up for sale.

Annoying if only because I wanted another iteration of Geometry Wars, which now seems less likely, and harsh because their track record is mostly great, if not entirely to my taste.

Maybe we'll now be getting quarterly updates to Call of Duty ¬¬

Sulphur on 17/11/2010 at 20:37

I'm always saddened to see news like this, but from a purely objective and heartless perspective, a clunker is a clunker and two clunkers in a studio as profit-driven as Actard means the walls will start to close in. Isn't this pretty much exactly how EA of old used to behave?

I suppose it's a bit of a consolation that they're trying to sell the studio off instead of just shutting it down, but a sale simply means that Kotick's shoving his money-grubbing fist through the walls and trying to recoup the company's losses.

Koki on 18/11/2010 at 08:37

Quote Posted by Ulukai

Maybe we'll now be getting quarterly updates to Call of Duty ¬¬

...

I'm okay with that.

nicked on 18/11/2010 at 08:51

(http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105386-Microsoft-Lines-Up-for-Bizarre) Microsoft might be buying them.

Jason Moyer on 18/11/2010 at 12:31

Pity. Blood Stone was the best game Activision released this month.

Ulukai on 18/11/2010 at 17:21

Quote Posted by nicked

(http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105386-Microsoft-Lines-Up-for-Bizarre) Microsoft might be buying them.

Would be a bit of a turn-around given that Microsoft (allegedly) tried to get bizarre to release PGR4 six weeks early, much to their disgust.

EvaUnit02 on 15/2/2011 at 09:07

The Batmobile lost a wheel and Superman will fly no more.

(http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-15-bizarre-creations-to-close-this-week) Bizarre Creations to close this week

They couldn't find any buyers for the studio. What a shame, PGR2 for Xbox was really good. (The Club was utter arse though.)

First Raven becomes CoD studio #3 and now this. Fuck you, Kotick.

Ulukai on 15/2/2011 at 10:55

The PGR racing games were ok, but for me, Forza 3 blows them straight out the water.

SubJeff on 15/2/2011 at 14:07

I'm trying to download Geometry Wars and first off the MSN site tells me my browser is no good (Firefox) so I used IE8 and the DL link just goes back to the homepage.

I already hate IE but this is just incompetence .

faetal on 15/2/2011 at 23:32

Interesting trivia (or unsolicited dick-waving perhaps, but still) - my band got a track on PGR3.