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Activision shuts down Bizarre Creations

Corleth the Fey

By Corleth the Fey
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SeanR

SeanR

Posted
Posted

People are upset because very few studios have a history of making games as consistently good as Bizarre. People didn't care as much when it was Midway. I don't suppose they would if it was Codemasters. Bizarre are different because the quality of their output has been so high for such a long period.

I think it comes down to some kind of perceived publishers vs. devcos scenario.

Sometimes just the SIZE of an organisation within the gaming industry is enough to turn the tide of public opinion against it.

Bloated, corpulent, greedy, yeah? Adjectives with negative connotations relating to size.

David vs. goliath

the people vs. the man

Haye vs. Harrison

That sort of thing, always rooting for the underdog. OK, maybe not that last one.

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cavalcade

cavalcade

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One other thing sprung to mind. Activision are clearly very focused on iteration and franchises. If you compare Split/Second to Blur, say Disney went asking for a sequel for the former. I 1000 pointed it, and loved it, but there are a huge number of areas for improvement. You could write 3 A4 sheets of bullet points about problems with the game, enjoyable as it was. If they announced a Split/Second 2 I'd be very interested and excited to see what they did with it.

Blur, by comparison, has a rock solid core. Clearly during the rocky previews where the graphics were horrible and the framerate was in single figures Bizarre were putting all their energies into the gameplay aspect. Now, I've only played Blur for a few hours, but reports from people who have sunk 150 hours plus into the game suggest that it's almost perfectly balanced. Where would you go with a Blur sequel? The environments aren't really that important, and are just a backdrop for the combat. The car licences are also unimportant. Adding new power ups could break the balance. The online works perfectly, and is compelling enough that there are still 100s of people playing it. In a sense, commercial failure aside, Bizarre built a game that didn't fit the Activision ethos of a yearly customer raping.

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Guest

Guest

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Posted

ok, now I'm confused. A sentence must start with a capital, and you can't start a sentence with "and", so I err on the side of caution, and this is how you repay me?

Maybe I should have started with an ellipsis?

Maybe I should have started with an ellipse?

A what? :coffee:

ellipsis, don't tell me they got to you too?

Ah so Sean, you make the mistake by saying "Ellipse" (and not Ellipsis) then go edit it? Hey look I already quoted it. No gold star for you.

Don't start getting grammatical with people when you can't use them correct words like there, son. :sherlock:

As for Ramone he is just confused by all this it would seem, it moves a bit too fast for him.

[in other news I just get fooled by the forum :facepalm: ]

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mushashi

mushashi

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Posted

I wonder if EA would have closed down Criterion if they had refused to make the NFS game? I mean the Burnout games haven't been as good since Burnout 2 and whilst Black was pretty good it only sold about 10 copies.

If you don't perform, you're eventually going to get benched, no matter how great your past endeavours are, history is littered with corpses of past developers who met that fate, in the end, the only thing that matters is the cheddar, it's the only metric that keeps you in business. Treyarch should count themselves lucky they lucked in and rode IW's coat-tails to success.

Pandemic had a solid enough history, a couple of high profile f*ckups got them P45'ed.

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Robo_1

Robo_1

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Just heard the news and I'm gutted.

I remember playing MSR back in the day, and looking back it's still one of the most satisfying and hooking racing games I've ever played. Blur was excellent fun online, The Club was a novel game, which may not have quite been up to muster, but again, had some great ideas backing it. Blood Stone also sits atop of my Christmas list.

After MSR/PGR they never quite found their place within the industry, but every one of their games had a distinct identity, you could tell they were never content with treading water, they took risks, ran with new ideas and sadly that seems to have cost them mainstream success. Certainly they've had some poor publisher choices conspire to shaft them, but when you look at their back catalogue, there's an incredibly talented team there, and it would be a real loss of a great developer if they were disbanded.

Fingers are crossed for them.

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Gambit

Gambit

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BC could possibly have made the game so great that it was appealing to a wide audience. Or maybe they couldn't, it doesn't matter.

If Bizarre are just making the games exactly as they're told to make them then THEY'RE ALREADY DEAD. So again, what exactly are we upset about?

That a bunch of people have/could lose there jobs?

What's the matter ramone? Got bored of trolling the Liverpool thread?

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bradigor

bradigor

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Posted

That a bunch of people have/could lose there jobs?

What's the matter ramone? Got bored of trolling the Liverpool thread?

They are Liverpool based, so he has a link there.

Still gutted for them over this. They have an excellent track record of producing excellent games.

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SeanR

SeanR

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That a bunch of people have/could lose there jobs?

What's the matter ramone? Got bored of trolling the Liverpool thread?

He's suggesting that as individuals we care not for them and their plight, but rather as a team, making games, we'd prefer that they continued. That we're all just being a bit, not selfish, but another word that means we look like we care, but we don't (and shouldn't) really.

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masterhand

masterhand

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So, how long does Robomodo have given that Tony Hawk Shred sold 5000 copies in its first week of release in the US?

(To be honest I thought they'd already been closed. And I had no idea Shred was out.)

It says 3000 in the article. :quote:

There have already been layoffs at Robomondo.

http://www.shogungamer.com/news/tony-hawk-ride-developer-robomodo-hit-layoffs-due-activisions-ruling

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mushashi

mushashi

Posted
Posted
There have already been layoffs at Robomondo.

Independent developer, not Activision owned, rose from the ashes of the studio shitcanned by EA. If Bizarre had remained an independent, would they have managed to last any longer in today's publishing climate? Feeding 200 people for 3+ years is no easy task, when you're reliant on others for work and you don't have a megaseller to rely on.

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Don Wiskerando

Don Wiskerando

Posted
Posted

He's suggesting that as individuals we care not for them and their plight, but rather as a team, making games, we'd prefer that they continued. That we're all just being a bit, not selfish, but another word that means we look like we care, but we don't (and shouldn't) really.

Disingenuous?

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ras el hanout

ras el hanout

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Posted

That a bunch of people have/could lose there jobs?

What's the matter ramone? Got bored of trolling the Liverpool thread?

Yeah I am a bit bored of that.

It's sad that people are losing their jobs, that goes without saying. I didn't need to say that, surely nobody here is stupid enough to need that spelled out to them. Do they? Did you need that spelled out to you, Gambuit? A load of people are losing their jobs all over the country through no fault of their own. Clearly what's relevant to us is that there'll be no more BC. But then they were miles better a while ago.

So what we've lost is a studio making games that nobody wants. It's hardly the catastrophe people are making out. Nobody died.

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Jack Walsh's coffee shop

Jack Walsh's coffee shop

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If you're a subservient wimp, maybe, but I'd rather see Bizarre close their doors than end up churning out shit they have no love for. Good on 'em for telling Kotick where to stick his Nascar license.

Listen this thing I said about the NASCAR license, it certainly isn't documented fact. It was an educated guess at best and I'm sorry if it came across as anything more than that, espeically given people's follow in comments from this.

I'm not even sure when Activision acquired the NASCAR license but it is at least known that another UK studio (Eutechnyx) is making it for them.

Frankly, I can't see that NASCAR games have ever or will ever be huge sellers. Prove me wrong if you have the figures of what EA's games sold, but just because people like to watch it in the US, I wouldn't really think that translates to playing it (not with the other more varied competetion in the racing genre).

Also, a NASCAR game is always going to have worse than weak sales in Europe and Japan. Assuming BLUR got published in Japan, I would think it found a following and that on the equivalent of RLLMUK in Japan, they love to bits there as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_nHDViCPFY

:bye:

Also, creating a new IP like BLUR would mean: if it becomes a hit and long running series, it's not like it can be taken away from Activision by a sporting body, nor do you have to pay them a royalty.

If Activision execs did try and get BC to make a NASCAR game, I would think that's a very bad call and the mark of people who don't understand the strength of the studio they've acquired. But then if their marketing dept had a big hand in how BLUR was formulated and targeted (the two adult for the kiddie crowd, too much of an arcade racer for the hardcore driving fans does ring true), who knows how fucked up things were.

Also, were senior management at Activision responsible for BLUR being shown at E3 2009 against BC wishes. Given how it looked then and the across the board negative to meh reaction, that was perhaps something it could never recover from.

:facepalm:

* Oh, according to the wiki entry for EA's last NASCAR game, their deal expired this year. I'm sure NASCAR were already looking for a new licensee prior to this though.

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Quest

Quest

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Posted

Listen this thing I said about the NASCAR license, it certainly isn't documented fact. It was an educated guess at best and I'm sorry if it came across as anything more than that, espeically given people's follow in comments from this.

It's okay man, I just took it as an excuse to launch an opening salvo in some very important point I was going to make, but then couldn't be bothered with.

I will say that it kinda bothers me that gamers are always asking studios to take risks with creative new titles and IP, only to turn around and jeer at their recklessness with people's jobs when it all goes tits up. Them's the breaks.

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