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Activision Closes Budcat; Bizarre Closing On Friday, February 18th

K

KareBear

Member
Bisnic said:
People are saying Bloodstone bombed, but just how much did it sold exactly? And what about Goldeneye? Is it as bad as Bloodstone? Should we fear for Eurocom too?
Click to expand...

Activision dont own Eurocom.
 
T

teruterubozu

Member
Bisnic said:
People are saying Bloodstone bombed, but just how much did it sold exactly? And what about Goldeneye? Is it as bad as Bloodstone? Should we fear for Eurocom too?
Click to expand...

Eurocom isn't owned by Activision
 
A

acm2000

Member
F1/F1 97 was the most fun id ever had in an F1 game (till F1 2010)

MSR still is to this day, one of the games that has awestruck me the most (2nd to Soul Calibur via VGA cable on DC)

PGR4 is the best racer this gen so far, and still has the best track side details/graphics (yes, including gt5)

activ...c*nts
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Bisnic said:
People are saying Bloodstone bombed, but just how much did it sold exactly? And what about Goldeneye? Is it as bad as Bloodstone? Should we fear for Eurocom too?
Click to expand...
Goldeneye did better than Bloodstone, but if the UK market is representative, neither did very well.

That said, Eurocom isn't owned by Activision, so they're not at risk here given how much work they've historically been able to sign.
 
Slayer-33

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
Project_Gotham_Racing_2_Coverart.png




Fucking bs..
 
K

Kifimbo

Member
Bisnic said:
People are saying Bloodstone bombed, but just how much did it sold exactly? And what about Goldeneye? Is it as bad as Bloodstone? Should we fear for Eurocom too?
Click to expand...

Eurocom is independant. Activision owned Bizarre.
 
A

Acosta

Member
teruterubozu said:
Most likely the contract had an out if the first 2 games didn't succeed.
Click to expand...

But that makes not sense, they produced only two games (good ones even), and one was not even a pure racing game. Why they would get rid of all that talent with such a short window.
 
T

teruterubozu

Member
Acosta said:
But that makes not sense, they produced only two good games, and one was not even a pure racing game. Why they would get rid of all that talent with such a short window.
Click to expand...

What are they going to do? Blur 2?
 
S

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
KingDizzi said:
Really love how brutal Activision are, they cut off the excess fat and Bizarre is one with bomb after bomb. Activision has made me quite a bit of money, love him or hate him Kotick knows how to run a business very successfully, Bizarre not being able to make a hit is not his problem.
Click to expand...
I think the company lacks the portfolio diversity it needs for long term success. They basically put all their eggs in one basket. If WoW and CoD ever lose their playerbase to competitors the company may no longer be profitable.

I'm sure stockholders are happy at the moment but they're not Nintendo.
 
L

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
Bisnic said:
People are saying Bloodstone bombed, but just how much did it sold exactly? And what about Goldeneye? Is it as bad as Bloodstone? Should we fear for Eurocom too?
Click to expand...
The only solid numbers we got are, In the UK: Goldeneye 2xBloodstone (All skus).
 
R

RedStep

Member
Kittonwy said:
It's not like other publishers have a great history either, EA closed down Pandemic and Namco-Bandai pulled the rug from right under Bottlerocket which led to their closure so you don't even have to be bought by a publisher to be fucked, the studio is always at risk unless you're first-party, the console maker is treating you right, AND you're commercially successful.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's how it is in any industry - if you don't continually pull in a profit, you go under (unless you have a "war chest" from previous successes, or can take out credit). Quality doesn't keep the lights on, sales do.
 
A

Art Teitlebaum

Member
Oh shit, this would be terrible.
Such talented people, who imo made the best arcade racers I ever played.
I hate you, Activision.

Did ya hear that? I HATE YOU!
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Lonely1 said:
The only solid numbers we got are, In the UK: Goldeneye 2xBloodstone (All skus).
Click to expand...
Which by approximation from other numbers, was 20,000 versus 10,000 copies.

As a barometer, Medal of Honor launched with 190k and New Vegas with 150k.
 
A

APZonerunner

Member
As I said, somebody at Microsoft needs to be watching this real carefully as it unfolds, and be prepared to help them set up a new studio like they did with Ruffian for Crackdown. They've been trying to find someone to work on PGR5 for a while now - rumours have pegged MS reps shopping the franchise around various 3rd party Euro devs - and they could theoretically get all the major talent who originally created it back. It was a huge mistake to not pick them up when they went up for sale, and they could rectify a chunk of it.
 
R

RiotPelaaja

Remedy
GarthVaderUK said:
I was worried about them when Blur and Bloodstone sold poorly, but to cull the entire studio so soon seems extreme.
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What else would you do? Leave 50 people which is not enough to develop a game...not m uch option.

Not saying it doesnt suck, I love Bizarre and feel horrible about this.
 
T

teruterubozu

Member
SapientWolf said:
I'm sure stockholders are happy at the moment but they're not Nintendo.
Click to expand...

Actually stockholders are screaming manipulation. CODBO hasn't budged the stock price one bit.


brotkasten said:
I thought Activision bought Bizarre, because they wanted a racing series like NFS?
Click to expand...

I think that's what Blur was supposed to be.
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Galvanise_ said:
Did they even bother trying to sell them so they'd at least make some money off of them. . .and then the guys/gals could at least still have jobs?
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That's my biggest issue here. It does not seem as if their games were given a fair share of marketing dollars. The same thing happened with Raven's games too.

With the way Activision works, why not just let them try their hand at a Call of Duty game? I'm positive they could do something awesome. It's tough to create a game with a new IP and little marketing. Blur was a hard sell, but even 007 wasn't going to be easy as there was no movie tie in and attention was being lavished elsewhere. They sent these games out to die.
 
S

Sydle

Member
APZonerunner said:
Holy shit if true. Microsoft, you were shopping the PGR franchise around various European studios - get a blank fucking cheque written now and set these guys up for PGR5 like you did with Ruffian/Realtime Worlds.
Click to expand...

This.
 
Slayer-33

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
Diablohead said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyodzW4wkFs&feature=related

This was the first tune I ever played over my first owned 5.1 sound setup years ago, can't tell by a youtube video but the music was fully 5.1 channel and it was glorious!
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I uploaded the music from pgr 2 a while back with the composers blessing, I have that porsche gt 1 as the vid pic :( man pgr 2 was the most fun I ever had on a racing game I think (specially online)
 
B

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Lonely1 said:
The only solid numbers we got are, In the UK: Goldeneye 2xBloodstone (All skus).
Click to expand...

Eh... and with how shitty NPD is these days, we wont even have numbers for these 2 games in the US.
 
R

rollingstart

Banned
Bizarre was one of my favorite developers. They made the best racing games and their other games were damn good too. Sad to see what happened after they joined Activision.
 
K

Kittonwy

Banned
SapientWolf said:
I think the company lacks the portfolio diversity it needs for long term success. They basically put all their eggs in one basket. If WoW and CoD ever lose their playerbase to competitors the company may no longer be profitable.

I'm sure stockholders are happy at the moment but they're not Nintendo.
Click to expand...

The thing is Activision right now has enough cashflow that if they see the next big thing, they can simply pump money into a project in that genre and market it like there's no tomorrow to ensure it's a success just like the way they marketed the COD games.

Bizarre's problem is that the action-shooter genre just isn't in their wheelhouse, they don't seem to have all that diverse a skillset outside of racing games, aside from geometry wars.
 
K

Kifimbo

Member
Blast from the past:

“Activision continues to grow and drive greater value for our shareholders by broadening our portfolio and entering new gaming categories with strong global appeal,” Activision chairman and CEO Robert Kotick stated.

“Bizarre Creations is the leading independent developer with a proven track record in developing highly successful and influential original properties, especially in the racing field. They are one of the most innovative and creative studios in the industry, and we are very excited to welcome this talented creative team to Activision.”
Click to expand...


Martyn Chudley, Bizarre Creations MD, said of the deal: “Our goal at Bizarre Creations has always been to do all we can to nurture our creative and passionate teams, who excel at and enjoy what they do. Activision’s independent studio model will continue giving us creative freedom to build exciting new brands.

“Their financial support and marketing prowess will also enable us to build upon the commercial success that we currently enjoy, and take the company – and our games – to an even higher level.”
Click to expand...

:(
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Sad to hear. I do hope some of the team is able to pull something together and carry on in another form. Though, the moment they joined Activision I assumed they would get downsized or otherwise gutted. Though I didn't expect a full shutdown.

Not sure what kind of options they had, but any developer hooks up with Activision at their own risk.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
BrokenSymmetry said:
PGR2 = Best Xbox Live game ever
PGR3 = Favorite XBox 360 launch game
PGR4 = Still the best-looking racer this gen
The Club = Great trend-setting score-based shooter

:(
Click to expand...
the club was just RE4's merc mode with some extra stuff.

it's really not that trend setting.

loved Blur and the PGRs though.

oh and yeah, Geometry Wars of course.
 
O

Odrion

Banned
This is sad, Blur was a great game that could've used a sequel.

But then again, you make a deal with the Devil...
 
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