Bizarre Creations closes shop on Friday
A sad time in video game industry as Bizarre Creations will be closing its doors for the very last time this Friday (18th Feb 2011).
The developers behind much loved titles like the Poject Gotham and Geometry Wars series will cease development and have their studio shut down making around 200 employees redundant. To many this wasn’t unexpected as it was announced back in November the probability of it happening would be inevitable if Activision failed to find a buyer. Such was the case and immediate action was taken.
After ending more than two decades in developing games, Bizarre Creations first really grabbed gamers and media watchdogs with their representation of Formula One back in 1996. However where the developer really stood out was when they released Project Gotham for the Xbox. The studio was also behind the much-loved Geometry Wars, which was released for the PC, Xbox, DS and Wii.
Activision purchased Bizzare Creations back in 2007 where they developed Blur and James Bond 007: Blood Stone. Both titles were perceived to be mediocre tiles by where they failed to really establish a fan base and ultimately led them to tip over the edge.
Kotaku reported from an ex-Bizarre staffer, who places blame on the studio itself. “We had no idea what to do and we ended up doing the wrong thing for nearly 4 years,” an alleged staffer writes.
“The problem was that we made Blur; real cars in realistic cities with power ups,” they write. “Who were we selling that game to? Marketing had no chance, we didn’t even know how to sell it or who it was aimed at.”
“Then we made Bond, which was destined to be average from the start when we aimed to ‘make it like Uncharted 2, but in half the time and with James Bond in it’.”
So, from us. Goodbye Bizarre Creations, we all had a good ride!
