Rumor broke earlier this week that the acquired studio Bizarre Creations that developed games like The Club, the Project Gotham Racing series and Blur were to be shut down by Activision. The studio was founded in 1994, and acquired by Activision just over three years ago.
Here is Activision’s statement: “Over the past three years since our purchase of Bizarre Creations, the fundamentals of the racing genre have changed significantly. Although we made a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur, it did not find a commercial audience. 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.”
This all seems a bit haste and in actuality drives the question if the company should have ever been brought by the publishing giant Activision to begin with. Bizarre Creations will undergo a 90-day period which also serves as a 90-day notice to employees that their company is likely to be closed/sold/downsized/etc. but optimism within the company seems to be high as potential buyers are on the rise.
Losing the company to Activision, which meant the end of them creating one of our favorite franchises the Project Gotham Series but to lose them altogether would be real unfortunate. We’ll have more on the story as it breaks.
[Source: Joystiq]
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