Why Closing Bizarre Creations Is The Right Decision

360 Magazine: I’m sick and tired of reading all this negativity about Activision when for the most part, it is not to blame.

[Igneel]

''It’s like blaming the apathetic gamers who didn’t buy Blur, yet are now “Up in arms” over the studio’s closure. ''

He do have a point there.

[Quagmire]

Im quite the opposite, I intend to purchase Blur and Blood Stone, yet feel completely indifferent to the studio's closure..

[AAACE5]

I would have bought Blur, but it just didn't seem like it was worth $60. Then by the time it started dropping in price, I wasn't interested anymore!

[Baka-akaB]

this is a silly argument ...
They marketed the game like crap and released it not only at a bad time , but close from a more publicized and better rival : Split/second .

It's too easy to lay the blame on gamers afterward . Especially when initially , i light of the first reports of poor sales , activision was pretending the game sold fine , and that they were fully committed to support Bizarre and even looking forward to a blur 2 .

Those idiots from Bizarre were even defending Activision right in the middle of the IW rift , and sining the "activision is the best" pr song

[gamingdroid]

Seems like MS did the right decision and now Bizarre is a turd on Activisions balance sheet.

If you have to blame anyone, blame the gamers for not buying the game. I'm sure Activision wouldn't leave any money on the table with their gigantic greed!

[showtimefolks]

they should either go work for sony or the new EA partners program

sony because it will give them freedom to do what they want and they will work on one console

EAP if their ip is important to them

going back to MS is a BIG NO NO they need to stay free of being bought and crap by anyone even if sony want them to work. work as a 2nd part just my personal opinion

they were with MS and made some great games with activision they made some good games its not their fault it didn't sell

[toaster]

Activision is closing it because Bizarre aren't the kind of devs to milk a product year after year after year for Koticks annual yacht purchase.

[Si-Fly]

Yeah whatever, if you include MSR Bizarre released 4 Project Gotham games within 5 years, they know how to milk a franchise! I loved the Dreamcast and original xbox games so I'm a little sad to see their demise but going on recent output it isn't too much of a loss.

[skip2mylou]

hey i bought blur and liked it played it for a good 3 months

[jack_burt0n]

if ur scroodge mc kunty.

[Sarcasm]

Unfortunately they just haven't made a truly stand-out title in awhile.

That doesn't mean they weren't talented and I hope those people find a good job elsewhere.

[kasasensei]

Bad timing for Blur, severals days after split/second, because the game is great, and runs good on every platform. And now, there is less than 500 people worldwide at the same time playing it on ps3... It's kinda hard to find full lobbies.
I like Bizarre, my favorite game from them is still Metropolis Street Racer on DC, i'll be sad of they decide to close the studio.
Formula One/97, and Geometry Wars 1/2 will always be in my memories too.

It reminds me when Grin closed, sad. I hope they will find a solution.

[Redempteur]

i played both blur and split and blur justs didn't have the sense of speed split second have nor the cinematic moments..

i didn't even hesitate ... i bought split/second

[Cajun Chicken]

Thanks for closing another great UK studio, AMERICA. :/

[The_Darkest_Red]

Blaming America, typical.

Maybe if the UK could come up with some decent publishers then us Yankees would be the ones buying from you...

[DARK WITNESS]

I feel bad for them in a way, but I cannot help but laugh a little.

Does anyone remember when they first signed up with Activision and it was right in the middle of the whole MW2/IW issue with the studio heads being kicked out.

Everyone was giving Activision a hard time and rightly so, these guys signed up with them and actually came out defending Activision.

It was something along the lines of Activision being great to work for and they are really good guys and all that crap ! two games later and look where they are now.

personally I didn't like blur one bit. PGR1 and 2 were the best games out there. PGR3 was great and I still think it's a very good looking game. PGR4 was a bit of a mess and a huge letdown.

blur was a mistake, the club was a mistake, bond game.... well.

I hope they reform a new studio and work on something good.

[stuntman_mike]

I've played and enjoyed both blur and bloodstone, thought they were good games.

[PJF_Josh]

^^^^^^

[unknownhero1123]

I played bloodstone and enjoyed it. a shame that the studio closed down though.

[MajestieBeast]

Yet the studio thats making the new tony hawk games is still alive.

[BrutallyBlunt]

Its because they think they can still milk the franchise. Activision is looking for IP's they can keep making games for and Blur failed to do so. Bond is an established IP but it probably didn't sell very well. Im not sure if the makers of Tony Hawk are the same developers for each installment.

[orange-skittle]

Agreed with article

[AwesomeJizz]

Activision can suck my pecker. Seriously now, Bizarre Studios are awesome and so far their games rocked (for me at least)

[BrutallyBlunt]

I read some comments from people who have said they dont have any problem with Enslaved not selling well and the reason is because they see Ninja Theory as traitors. Traitors for abandoning exclusivity on the Playstation 3. Now look at that self-righteous attitude and increase that scale to Activision. Many have been very opinionated about them.

At first i was struck at how narrow-minded some people are but then it got me thinking, is it true? Are people that entangled with things outside of the actual games? Well reading topic after topic on N4G it seems this could very well be true. The games themselves have become the background. Smack talking companies like Microsoft, Sony and Activision seem to now take precedent over any discussion.

Blur was and is a good game. Why it didn't sell well could be many reasons and it being published by Activision could be one reason. A reason i once thought was a non-issue but i could be wrong. Bloodstone got mixed reviews.

On the other hand Call of Duty sells more than most games, so there goes that theory.

[jack_burt0n]

"We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."

"I think we definitely have been able to instill the culture, the skepticism and pessimism and fear that you should have in an economy like we are in today. And so, while generally people talk about the recession, we are pretty good at keeping people focused on the deep depression."

"really rewards profit and nothing else." (Concerning Kotick's incentive program for Activision employees)

"If you think about the success that we've had in other product categories on subscription, you can get a sense of the direction that we want to take that franchise" (Concerning Call of Duty franchise)

"Long-term focus and commitment to providing superior returns to our shareholders."

"And Tony, you know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further."

"With respect to the franchises that don’t have the potential to be exploited every year across every platform with clear sequel potential that can meet our objectives of over time becoming $100 million plus franchises, that’s a strategy that has worked very well for us."

"And again, our strategy, narrow and deep, focus on properties that will sell to a very broad consumer base on the console -- those are strategies that seem to work well."

"there will continue to be opportunities for us to exploit the PC platform in ways that we haven’t yet."

- B kotick

[NYC_Gamer]

why keep dead weight?their games were not making activision any money

[TruthbeTold]

Activision apologists. Regardless of the topic. They're a big corporation, some things they say, how they say them, and many things they do rub people the wrong way. They don't need fanboys to play the role of apologist for them. It only fuels the fire.