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Activision Considers Sale Of Blur Dev Bizarre Creations, Puts Staff On Notice
by Kris Graft [PC, Console/PC]
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November 16, 2010
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Activision confirmed to Gamasutra on Tuesday that it is considering selling off Bizarre Creations, the UK-based developer that the megapublisher acquired in 2007.
"Over the past three years since our purchase of Bizarre Creations, the fundamentals of the racing genre have changed significantly," an Activision rep said in a statement. "Although we made a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur, it did not find a commercial audience."
The statement continued, "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."
The statement from Activision comes as rumors hit the web that 200 workers were let go from the Liverpool, England-based studio.
But the rep told Gamasutra that all Bizarre staff thus far have only received a 90-day notice that some type of restructuring or closure could take place, in accordance with UK labor laws.
It's possible that parent Activision could sell off Bizarre as a whole, shut it down, reduce the headcount or sell off its assets, among numerous other possibilities. Activision has yet to make public any firm decision.
Bizarre released the combat racing game Blur in May this year, and the console versions of action title James Bond 007: Blood Stone just this month. The company is also behind the Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars series.
The Liverpool-based developer formed as Bizarre Creations in 1994, although the studio's roots go back into the 1980s.
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Several people I know complained about major stability issues when the game launched; that, and steep intra-genre competition (Modnation Racers, Split/second), probably had more to do with it.
Best to those affected - find work soon.
Also, even though Blur was a very interesting and innovative take on the genre, taking on Mario Kart just seems like suicide. Perhaps there is no need to compete with Mario Kart since it basically gives its players exactly what they want already.
Blood Stone, on the other hand...
Anyway, I think it's a bit trollish even for ATVI standards to announce something like that. Bizarre guys must be feeling like crap now. Maybe they wanted a quick and cheap way to find out how much the market would pay for Bizarre? Not good news, nonetheless.
That is perhaps a poor choice of words. Perhaps he was meaning that the racing genre's market has changed, or maybe I'm misinterpreting his words to mean, "the racing genre doesn't hold the same appeal as it has.".
During the last year we have seen a high number of high quality racers spanning all sorts of sub-genres. We have seen great sims (FM3, Supercar Challenge, GT5 soon), great sim-arcade (NFS:Shift, DiRT 2, MX vs. ATV Reflex, F1 2010, WRC), great arcade games (Blur, Split/Second, Mario Kart Wii, Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing, Modnation Racers)...the racing genre is full of high quality titles, perhaps a saturated market at this point.
Due to this competition, sales of high quality titles can suffer. Consumers are more picky, cannot support that many titles, and marketing plays a bigger role in raising the profile of one quality racer over another.
Clearly the market itself has changed with this saturation, rather than the appeal of the genre itself (which is what the wording seems to imply). Maybe he was meaning exactly what I am stating now...thus it is possible it was a poor choice of words.