According to a source, Bizarre Creations will be going through a "90-day consultation period, statutory redundancy." The NeoGAF thread on this subject states that all 200 or so staff at the studio have been made redundant. Bizarre employees have known about today's closure for just about three hours.
A press release about this is said to be forthcoming.
UPDATE:Joystiq has a bit of clarification on the "90-day consultation, statutory redundancy" thing. Bizarre is sorta in the process of closing. This 90-day period gives notice to employees that a company is going to be shuttered or sold or downsized.
UPDATE 2: Shacknews and other websites have received the following boilerplate from Activision regarding this. Just to be extra clear, our sources believed Bizarre was toast at the time we reported this. It appears now, though, that the studio isn't closing immediately as was feared. It's possible that within this 90-day period someone can buy Bizarre and save the jobs that were supposedly made redundant.
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.
Cute how people love to jump on Activision.... If you don't make the company money you are worthless, doesn't matter if they had talent... Wonder did EA get this kind of backlash when pandemic closed
oh great the new government turning against the games industry in get rid of the new tax breaks that were going to given have really damged the devs and now more tallent will move to canada etc.
But I can't put that much of the blame on Activision. I blame probably about 90% of the people who have posted on this story. Shame on all of you for not buying Blur, one of the best racing games in recent memory!
Because if you ran a game studio that produced a game at a huge loss to you, you'd let them stay around, right? I'm not saying it isn't sad to see Bizarre closing down, but with Blur's failure at the market and Blood Stone's... nonexistent audience, really, that's two games that are going to do pretty badly in one year. It's a financial thing. "
No doubt. But it is up to the publisher to make sure a game sells. That's their job. Unfortunately unless it's another FPS Activision are (and have always been) incapable of properly marketing their products. Also let us not forget the part that Activision's constant stream of poor quality tosh that they shat out in the 80's was part of the reason behind the video game crash of the early-mid eighties. Though obviously they were not solely responsible, Atari et' al have a lot to answer for too. It's just a shame to see the signs again. "
Not true. They're perfectly capable of marketing six Guitar Hero games in a single year, as they did last year. Trust me, if Activision had wanted to keep Bizarre's games publicized, they could have. Although I definitely saw plenty of advertising for Blur (more than for Split/Second or for ModNation Racers, by a long shot) they definitely didn't market Blood Stone at all. "
Blur was advertised like a mother fucker. It even had its own mascot for the advertisements. Blood Stone was maybe understandably undermarketed since so much more went to Goldeneye instead. I guess. It was a pointess Bond game, really, and if you're crazy, you could suggest that Activision gave them that game just to help kill off Bizarre.
Much love to the staff. This is some bullshit to be sure. I really enjoyed the time I spent with Blur, and although I suck shit at them, I love the Geometry Wars games. Here's hoping someone else buys them before they all lose their jobs completely.
I remember Blur selling not many copies at all. According to vgchartz, it sold about 500,000 copies across all platforms. Activision isn't lying when they say it didn't sell.
It still sucks that people are getting fired though. Hope they can all find work
Because if you ran a game studio that produced a game at a huge loss to you, you'd let them stay around, right? I'm not saying it isn't sad to see Bizarre closing down, but with Blur's failure at the market and Blood Stone's... nonexistent audience, really, that's two games that are going to do pretty badly in one year. It's a financial thing. "
No doubt. But it is up to the publisher to make sure a game sells. That's their job. Unfortunately unless it's another FPS Activision are (and have always been) incapable of properly marketing their products. Also let us not forget the part that Activision's constant stream of poor quality tosh that they shat out in the 80's was part of the reason behind the video game crash of the early-mid eighties. Though obviously they were not solely responsible, Atari et' al have a lot to answer for too. It's just a shame to see the signs again. "
Not true. They're perfectly capable of marketing six Guitar Hero games in a single year, as they did last year. Trust me, if Activision had wanted to keep Bizarre's games publicized, they could have. Although I definitely saw plenty of advertising for Blur (more than for Split/Second or for ModNation Racers, by a long shot) they definitely didn't market Blood Stone at all. "
Blur was advertised like a mother fucker. It even had its own mascot for the advertisements. Blood Stone was maybe understandably undermarketed since so much more went to Goldeneye instead. I guess. It was a pointess Bond game, really, and if you're crazy, you could suggest that Activision gave them that game just to help kill off Bizarre. But I don't think that's the case. "
Neither do I.
Though there was very little advertisement for Blur in the UK. Which i find odd more due to the fact that racing games tend to sell better in Europe. Maybe they thought they could save money due to that fact. Who knows.
It makes me sad to know that another gaming company is going to be shut down this holiday season. Activision does make good games but they have strange business ethics.
I'm going to ask for James Bond: Blood Stone for Christmas, though, and that's because I'm a huge Bond fan.
Honestly, activision kills their own studio by making them do shitty racing games, and bond games? Seriously, how hard is it to just make Gotham 5? That'd save the studio and then some. Hell even slapping together a GW3 in 90 days would do it, if you ask me. People love those series.
Lame. How about instead of shutting the studio down, they shut down a studio that doesn't make good games? Blur reviewed really well, If Activision had really got the marketing push on, it could have been big.
And it's not like 500,000 copies is bad. It's just not Call of Duty big.
Man I never expected this to happen to Bizzare, heard Blur was a really good game. But yeah, racing games aren't really my thing. :/ Nowadays, I feel racing games have hit a bit of a slump. Who knows, maybe motion controllers will bring them back to the mainstream.
What a shame. I think there was really potential in that IP, given a few more iterations. They could've figured out ways of making the single player less shitty, maybe figure out a Time Travel mode which plays to their power up system (Think Excitebike only with real cars), and had a real compelling package on their hands.
I went and played some Blur online after seeing the news. Decent amount of folk online, about 100. Not the biggest crowd, but it works. That game is still damn fun. I only wonder who keeps the IP if Bizarre goes elsewhere. I'd like to see them take another shot at it.
" According to Activision, popular games that do nothing new are okay, but innovative games that don't bring in sales are redundant. "
Yes, this is called business "
... thus innovation dies because developers won't dare to try anything new for fear of what might happen if it doesn't sell. "
It doesn't help when people are pirating or standing on soapboxes expecting Activision and other big name publishers to tank these losses for them. Why should Activision be responsible for supporting an 'innovative' game? Why would they not keep churning out game after game of the same franchise -- If people buy them? If people are buying these games, why would they not keep making them?
Not good news! I think Bizarre is a talented developer and I loved games like Geometry Wars and PGR (and Blur is a good game too). It's also not good news for the UK gaming industry as it's a loss of a lot of jobs and another well established developer.
I think Microsoft should buy Bizarre and the rights to Geometry Wars and Blur (and also mend any bad blood between the studio and themselves if there are any) and then make a new PGR game.
It's a transitional period for the games industry. It's all a ratio between the scale of production and the success of the end product. Big games need to be bigger than ever to justify their costs, meanwhile two people make a facebook game and through some stroke of luck it grows exponentially in popularity. The middle-ground is tumbling into the abyss. It sucks that developers are still trapped under publishers farming IP out to them, but it's worse that developers are making new IP that doesn't sell because it isn't called X of Y.
What the fuck is this fucking bullshit pill of fecal matter shit cookie pie bacon fuck fuck?!?!?! I wish them the best of luck, they're a talented bunch and it would be sad to see them fucked over one game. I can't really blame Activsion since the goal of a business is to make money but I think they would be worth the investment at least once more. I've seen some true shit giving multiple chances in the past.
Terrible news. Given Bizarre Creations close proximity to Sony Liverpool hopefully those being made unemployed will find a new home there with relative speed.
I would also like to join the queue of people here by saying fuck Activision.
" According to Activision, popular games that do nothing new are okay, but innovative games that don't bring in sales are redundant. "
Yes, this is called business "
... thus innovation dies because developers won't dare to try anything new for fear of what might happen if it doesn't sell. "
It doesn't help when people are pirating or standing on soapboxes expecting Activision and other big name publishers to tank these losses for them. Why should Activision be responsible for supporting an 'innovative' game? Why would they not keep churning out game after game of the same franchise -- If people buy them? If people are buying these games, why would they not keep making them? "
I'm not criticising them continuing to make those games. I'm criticising this idea that those should be the ONLY games developed; and the idea that when a new game is created that doesn't instantly break sales records it should be canned.
@AndyMP: True; however very few studios have the ability to experiment with new IPs, and I believe it was EA who attempted to try and branch out and create 4 or 5 new IPs in the same year. Some were successes, but some, like Mirror's Edge, though a novel and interesting idea, didn't perform great and only now(?) I think a Mirror's Edge 2 is being considered. I'm simply saying that most people have to realize that piracy is still a huge issue -- it can't be discredited or seen as a scapegoat, though in some cases it is, and that most publishers wouldn't be able to take on the failure of a few new IPs and they'd have to close down the studio.
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