Gareth Wilson, a former design team manager, explains the reasons behind that decision One of the elder members of the team behind Blur and Project Gotham Racing has finally decided to break the silence about the reasons that led to close Activision Bizarre Creations. Speaking to Eurogamer, Gareth Wilson, design manager of the former group, said: "It was a series of unfortunate circumstances.
Than when it was acquired by Activision Bizarre, things have changed. Dealing with new IP, in particular, has become extremely risky at this point in the life cycle of the current console and because of the global economic crisis. " "Blur was not the only way not to sell in 2010, there were many more: Enslaved, Alan Wake and Vanquish have suffered the huge success of series such as Halo and Call of Duty." Activision's announcement regarding the closure of Bizarre Creations has come after a period of three months when the team was looking for a new property.
Many members of the group took the time to find a new job, for example, Wilson was hired by Sumo Digital, responsible for Outrun Online Arcade. "When it was announced that Activision was trying to sell or close the study, most employees have started to look around, clearly hoping that Bizarre was bought by another publisher," said Wilson.
"It was not an unfair practice: given that the situation was unclear, Activision gave us leave to allow us to do some interview." Some have pointed to the failure of Blur as the reason for triggering the decision by Activision. In reality the game was released in the same period of titles such as Split / Second: Velocity and Dead Red Redemption: the first has sold too little, the second is obtained outstanding results.
"Probably the release date has not helped," Wilson admitted, "but the reality is that nowadays is not easy to reach two or three million copies sold. The games sell a lot or very little or no middle ground. The quality level has risen, just look at the average rating assigned by critics of the field, which in 2010 stood on the 8 / 10 for a huge number of titles.
" Many players did not take the news well the closure of Bizarre Creations, expressing anger at Activision. However, Wilson has come to draw different conclusions from this incident. "Now I can take it more philosophically, but it is clear that I was angry when, in November, we learned of the intention to sell or close the study.
The three months that has brought us a buyer tried to slowly become aware of the fact that Bizarre was closed. "Last Friday, when it was announced the closure, Bizarre Creations has said goodbye to his fans with a touching video farewell. "The comments posted to that video made us feel proud of the work," said Wilson.
"In particular there were people who said that Blur was their favorite racing game for 2010, which has was very pleased considering the poor sales. "Wilson now looks to the future, and Sumo Digital wants to create games of great quality, direct to a wide audience. His opinion is that Sumo is similar to Bizarre Creations for the first time, in terms and dimensions of culture.
"I can not talk about the projects we have in the pipeline, as you might imagine, but I can tell you that Sumo is working on a few titles of great importance and it is for this reason that I chose to work with them." At the end interview, Wilson was asked which of the games made with Bizarre was his favorite.
"As a fan, I would say that The Killing Game Show was a fantastic game, I spent almost every summer vacation! As a project, I would say without doubt PGR3. We felt really be setting new standards with that game, by the achievement TrueSkill matchmaking system. In addition, I will never forget the faces of the journalists when we showed the view of the car for the first time on a big screen! "Source: Eurogamer 
Than when it was acquired by Activision Bizarre, things have changed. Dealing with new IP, in particular, has become extremely risky at this point in the life cycle of the current console and because of the global economic crisis. " "Blur was not the only way not to sell in 2010, there were many more: Enslaved, Alan Wake and Vanquish have suffered the huge success of series such as Halo and Call of Duty." Activision's announcement regarding the closure of Bizarre Creations has come after a period of three months when the team was looking for a new property.
Many members of the group took the time to find a new job, for example, Wilson was hired by Sumo Digital, responsible for Outrun Online Arcade. "When it was announced that Activision was trying to sell or close the study, most employees have started to look around, clearly hoping that Bizarre was bought by another publisher," said Wilson.
"It was not an unfair practice: given that the situation was unclear, Activision gave us leave to allow us to do some interview." Some have pointed to the failure of Blur as the reason for triggering the decision by Activision. In reality the game was released in the same period of titles such as Split / Second: Velocity and Dead Red Redemption: the first has sold too little, the second is obtained outstanding results.
"Probably the release date has not helped," Wilson admitted, "but the reality is that nowadays is not easy to reach two or three million copies sold. The games sell a lot or very little or no middle ground. The quality level has risen, just look at the average rating assigned by critics of the field, which in 2010 stood on the 8 / 10 for a huge number of titles.
" Many players did not take the news well the closure of Bizarre Creations, expressing anger at Activision. However, Wilson has come to draw different conclusions from this incident. "Now I can take it more philosophically, but it is clear that I was angry when, in November, we learned of the intention to sell or close the study.
The three months that has brought us a buyer tried to slowly become aware of the fact that Bizarre was closed. "Last Friday, when it was announced the closure, Bizarre Creations has said goodbye to his fans with a touching video farewell. "The comments posted to that video made us feel proud of the work," said Wilson.
"In particular there were people who said that Blur was their favorite racing game for 2010, which has was very pleased considering the poor sales. "Wilson now looks to the future, and Sumo Digital wants to create games of great quality, direct to a wide audience. His opinion is that Sumo is similar to Bizarre Creations for the first time, in terms and dimensions of culture.
"I can not talk about the projects we have in the pipeline, as you might imagine, but I can tell you that Sumo is working on a few titles of great importance and it is for this reason that I chose to work with them." At the end interview, Wilson was asked which of the games made with Bizarre was his favorite.
"As a fan, I would say that The Killing Game Show was a fantastic game, I spent almost every summer vacation! As a project, I would say without doubt PGR3. We felt really be setting new standards with that game, by the achievement TrueSkill matchmaking system. In addition, I will never forget the faces of the journalists when we showed the view of the car for the first time on a big screen! "Source: Eurogamer
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