Bizarre Creations Officially Closes This Friday

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Richard Walker

With Activision initially looking into the possibility of selling troubled studio, Bizarre Creations, the outlook didn't look completely bleak for the Liverpool-based developer, but with the publisher later recommending that the studio finally close its doors, any hope that it would continue to operate disappeared. And on Friday, 18th February that will officially be the case, as Bizarre Creations shuts down and will cease to exist for good.

Develop reports that sources inside Bizarre seem positive regarding the way in which Activision is conducting the closure, although it's also said that the publisher "meddled" in certain projects and failed to support games with the level of marketing they required. Blur and James Bond: Blood Stone's recent poor performance at retail reflect this.

Famed for its racing titles such as Project Gotham Racing, Blur and Metropolis Street Racer on Dreamcast as well as its not-so-good action games like The Club and the recent 007 romp, Blood Stone, there's no doubt that the 200-strong UK developer will be sorely missed.

[Via Game Informer]

Comments
54
  • No more PGR then ? Not cool :-[
  • Well thats just shit. Hopefully the people working there can find new jobs :)
  • And another one bites the dust. It's a shame for all those guys who are going to lose their jobs and those racer fans but I'm not personnally going to miss this studio. The only thing I remember playing of theirs recently was the new 007 game and honestly, it didn't really raise any eyebrows.
  • So we have EA that close thier severs for games, and Activision getting rid of game developers. I wonder who will just completly stop making games. So does this mean no online play for PGR 4 anymore
  • Idiots. Why shut down a good studio?
  • @1 Thsi doesn't mean no more PGR, MS owns the name, but that doesn't mean they will create a good PGR. But what will happen to Geometry Wars?!
  • For people talking about PGR, the online will still be there since its mircosofts servers and PGR is rumored to be picked up by TURN10 or former employees of TURN10
  • And the dominos continue to fall over at activision........... Even with cod I guess acto had a really bad year if there canceling games left and right. Added with laying off 200 people is never a good sign also.
  • blur is a fantastic game...i just wish that some of my friends had it so i can play it more...
  • Was it just me who quite liked The Club? hut either way it's a shame to see 200 people without a job because Actvision were to busy supporting their beloved CoD series.
  • Oh shit! So does this mean they will be closing the online servers for Blood Stone? I have it coming soon as a rental =(
  • Its all activision greedy gimps. Hope they lose all
  • Only games of theirs I've ever played were the Geo Wars titles. I loved them =/
  • Blur is such a good game, will they be closing the servers for it?
  • I still don't understand the lack of love for Blur, it's one of the most outright fun games I've ever played on the 360, it's one of very few games I still play online nearly a year after it's release. Also let's hope whatever happens to the PGR name that it still feels like PGR, I'd hate it to turn into a Forza clone.
  • Blur is so under-rated. One of the best racers ever. Like Mario Kart for grown-ups, but actually good. I quite liked Blood Stone too. :(
  • Shame was looking forward to a pgr 5 at some point :( activision are kind of thick really they advertise one game and one game only, you'd think they could afford to after the ammount of money they make from cod every year
  • MSR for the win! That game was awesome!!!!!!!! Bye bye bizarre! :( Def gonna miss the games out of this studio. To those who don't care. MSR was epic. PGR3 was even more epic...Launch title for the 360. Graphics still better than most 5 years later!
  • R.I.P PGR :(
  • I hope this doesn't mean the end of hope for another "Geometry Wars" ... those are great games.
  • Nooooooooooooo! Blur was a quality game i was hopin' they'd support it with masses of DLC but guess they were busy just tryin' to keep there jobs. @10 you weren't the only who liked The Club i thought it was allright not amazing but def had its fun.Msr,Geo wars and Pgr were all great games. Goodbye bizzare you shall be soorly missed and activision you can go drink cum out of a dead hookers pussy and wash it down with a glass of tramp spit!
  • This is a real shame! I pass the studio when I visit my sister in Liverpool, wonder what it'll be used for now? ...
  • PGR, Blur and Geometry Wars are quality games. Activision suck, we don't need a great British developer shutting down =(
  • Microsoft should've picked up Bizarre creations for the sake of PGR. I've never played those games, but I know they were well liked.
  • I loved PGR so much. Too bad they have to shut down. I'm going to buy Blur now. Just to see what it's like. Btw. Does this mean that they'll shut down the servers for all the Bizarre games?
  • Blur is itence. one of my top games of last year for sure. does this mean the servers are going to be closed down? i seriously hope not becuase blur has some of the best online racing multiplayer iv ever played
  • they should have stuck with mircrosoft instead of going to call of duty oops i mean activison wonder how long it will take them to shut down bungie
  • In a few years time, there wont be any original games left. There will be about 5 games released per year if things go on like this. There will only be the annual COD and GOW rehash and a few updated sports games like Fifa and Madden and Tiger Woods. For shame!!
  • #28, thankfully bungie is still independant, there only with call of duty i mean activitsion for multy platforming.
  • so are the servers shutdown for blur cuz i wanted that game still?
  • Wow, I actually thought blur was good on the demo :/ Although i really never expected much from bloodstone. Also I really don't get why everyone is mad at Call of Duty or Activision. They didn't shut them down because they only love black ops like everyone keeps saying, it was closed down because of bad sales. It may be a shame but put the blame where its due, not with Activision or Call of Duty but with the sales Bizarre recived.
  • It's a shame that so much racing-experience and creative talent is wasted away by poor decisions like Blur's stupid art-style and the decision to make a crappy Bond-game without a movie supporting it. I just hope that some of the former employees will relocate into a new, independant studio and start anew as an XBLA-developer. I really liked Boom Boom Rocket and Geometry Wars and as Double Fine perfectly shows, going away from Triple-A holds a future for indipendant studios.
  • Whilst I hate to be that negative guy, if Bizarre Creations are this very talented studio everone is making them out to be on here, then how come nobody picked them up when Activision were offering them out to several publishers? Perhaps because that apart from PGR, their 360 games have been average at best maybe?
  • @30 the day bungie signed the 10 year deal with activision was the day they rented their soles away to the devil(bobby Kotick) for 10 years. Coincidentally it was the day I decided I would never buy another bungie game after Halo Reach.
  • I did a focus group for them and they wanted to know why people don't play racing games any more. My answer was because they are all the same. Granted FPS games are all the same in theory but when you say hey we are making blur 2 and the new thing is driving on the wall and ceiling. Why do you think people don't give a shit any more. I feel bad for the staff but quit making shitty games and you wont get canned.
  • I haven't played any of their games beyond PGR and I would only imagine they would keep up to par with all their games. That freakin sucks really disappointing
  • They need to close their doors, after making the abomination that was James Bond 007: Blood Stone.
  • I really liked Blur, and Blood Stone single player was fun.
  • If there are any games or DLC from that studio that you want, that's on the Xbox Marketplace... you'd better download it NOW! Remember what happened when Midway Games went under? We lost a whole bunch of Xbox LIVE Arcade games (Joust, Robotron, Root Beer Tapper, to name a few). Even when a studio loses licensing rights, you lose the downloads as well (remember when Activision lost the rights to Marvel - no more DLC for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 & 2)! If you've been waffling about getting any download games or DLC from Bizarre Creations... you'd better get it quick!!! Who knows if that content will be available after Feb. 18th (or the 17th)!?!
  • #35 They rented their feet? How strange.
  • It would appear I've angered the fanboys with my honest opinion. What a shame....
  • So to make it official Activision cancel Blur, True Crime Honk Kong, Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Bloodstone, Tony Hawks, because they oversaturate the one's that are big names and new ip's they dont market fail and close down the studio, even though the studio is reputed in their field. and now....they are planning on making a bid for Take two?? F**K Off Activision, leave my Red Dead Alone!!!!!
  • FUCK YOU Activision, or should it be Assdivision?
  • I'm so sad for them... I LOVED PGR and Geometry Wars ! I tried Blur demo and it was really fun too ! The worst thing they did was to contract with bloody Activision. I thought EA was a bad editor... looks like Activision is not better.
  • FUUUUUUUUUUUUU NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Blur and PGR are such awesome games its sad to see such a great company go bust. Super sad face : (
  • Its sad that people are moaning about Activision being a Business. Bizarre could have been saved while nobody wanted to save them and people you can't blame Activision for that. I guess people forgot that EA and Ubisoft closed some of their Studios last while nobody cared about that. I'm sure that people do remember a certain studio called Pandemic and EA closed them because Mercenaries 2 didn't do that well. All I see are people moaning about things that they can't comprehend or people Trolling for no reason.
  • Here's hoping for a Geometry Wars 3 revival
  • sad. their PGR were really great, my favoite racing games beside dirt
  • Tragic, they were slipping keeping new and fresh, msr was fantastic, pgr brilliant, blur is great, hopefully the staff will move on to greener pastures. Well done bizarre "claps"
  • So, i can quit dreaming a 360 destruction derby uh?
  • The Club and Blood Stone were not very good games. In fact, none of the games on the list were particularly big sellers which I'm sure is why they are closing. You can't afford to keep supporting a studio that isn't bringing in a profit. It's unfortunate for the people that lost their jobs. All I can say is they should have aimed a little higher with all of their games. I know a lot of people really like the PGR series and many people liked Blur but neither was my cup of tea. So, that leaves me with only The Club and Blood Stone which technologically felt like they both could have been accomplished on the original xbox. With more polish, they both could have both been a lot better.
  • One of the bigger mistakes I've seen in the video game industry. The project gotham fracnhise was one of the best racing series around and PGR4 is easily one of my favorite games of all time. They could have fixed issues inside the company if they did not leave MS/MS get rid of them, which ever it was and made PGR5. The game IMO would have been amazing, but obviously once they left MS they did not have the rights to Project Gotham Racing. A sad day in the Gaming industry IMO.
  • Time to have shutting down party, with PGR, all 4 of em
  • personally im not a fan of pgr racing i prefer forza or need for speed and test drive to it. not everybody can deliver great games. i play cod series but i also have my fair share of other games i play. im not a fan of dead rising period not what i call fun for me. theres just to many racing games out there now pgr was decent but it couldn't stand up against any of the other games. shit happens
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