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.
" That sucks, I enjoyed PGR alot, but usually when you are making movie licensed games you can't be in great shape. "
Agreed, but oddly enough 7 studios is still around.
Also to everybody bemoaning that there is no more PGR, that is a product owned by Microsoft. So when Activision (before the Acti-Blizzard merger etc.) picked up Bizarre in 2007 there was never going to be more PGR.
Such a shame. UK game development is shrinking ever smaller. Picked up Blur a few days ago, really enjoying it. Tried linking my account today but can't log into the site, this probably explains it.
" Uhhh, wait what! No more Forza, no more Geometry Wars! Dude... That's weird. Maybe Blood Stone pushed them over the edge? There was some talent in that studio, I hope they all find new places to work... That's messed up I didn't see this coming at all. "
Forza is Turn 10. I think you may be thinking of Project Gotham Racing.
Blur was a mistake. In this business you f*ck up once and it's over. That being the case, I've always loved BC. Tonight, in remembrance of the studio, I'm going to play the hell out of PGR1--the studio's finest game.
Hey guys is Bloodstone ready? Good, lets get it shipped out. OK, the scores aren't the greatest, but they are not bad. Alright guys, good job today and also... you are all fucking fired get the fuck out of this building. NOW!!!
I'm sure that whole ordeal went over terribly. fucking activision...
Way to drive a nail into the coffin of one of the few remaining game series I care about (Geometry Wars). I'm pretty sure that Activision won't let the game go with its creators, and will probably let it quietly fade into memory.
Oh well, as long as their redundancy package includes copies of Geometry Wars then they will have something to do whilst they sit around in their underwear.
Wow, really? Did Blur not sell really well? Bloodstone, sure, being a shitty licensed shooter, but Blur should've gotten some sales, even if the Multiplayer was the only good part of that game. That's a real shame.
454 Comments