TwiztidElf
Member
Took this shot before Blur came out.
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Activision Closes Budcat; Bizarre Closing On Friday, February 18th
- Thread starter KennyLinder
- Start date
Took this shot before Blur came out.
eso76
Member
Visualante said:
it probably doesn't (and to tell the truth, i believe T10 might actually have an advantage when it comes to choice and number of "premium" cars, surprisingly enough). But car handling and feel is obviously not what i thought Bizarre could help with.
I believe T10 needs to hire if they want to compete with Gt5 in terms of visuals, though, and i believe these guys are the best they can get.
They have some great tech, incredible talent, artistic skills, and impressive know how especially when it comes to modeling environments.
PGR4 had night racing and rain, thunderstorms, snow, fog...3 years ago, and dare i say they looked ...well, let's just say they looked a lot better than some choose to remember.
Having them lend a hand in the development of the next Forza would make a huge difference.
butter_stick
Banned
Warm Machine said:
Assuming it's got a subscription model, I'm sure Activision stand to profit a bit from that.
That's the rumor anyway, right?
Spaceman Spiff
Member
Goddammit this is awful. Bizarre consistently put out my favorite racing games-- the PGR series was pretty much an unbroken sequence of successes-- and definitely had some of the best talent in the racing game business and beyond. It's terribly sad to see them go, and I hope most of the team lands on their feet. They will be missed.
Edit: Fuck yeah at TwiztidElf's picture. I played the shit out of Bizarre's racers starting with MSR, with well over 500 hours in PGR2 alone. Some of the best games I've ever had the pleasure of playing.
Edit: Fuck yeah at TwiztidElf's picture. I played the shit out of Bizarre's racers starting with MSR, with well over 500 hours in PGR2 alone. Some of the best games I've ever had the pleasure of playing.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
avatar299 said:
Did they really benefit from the Bizarre name in any way though?
If it was just some no-name internal Activision studio that made Blur and James Bond, would the sales have been even lower?
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I'm mixed on this.
I feel sorry they are all losing their jobs. That sucks in the current economic climate. I'd hardly say they are getting screwed when you look at how their games have done lately.
I'm also not sure how good the current team still is or who is left from say their PGR2 heyday.
I feel sorry they are all losing their jobs. That sucks in the current economic climate. I'd hardly say they are getting screwed when you look at how their games have done lately.
I'm also not sure how good the current team still is or who is left from say their PGR2 heyday.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
LCfiner said:
Metropolis Street Racer is one of the very, very few games that's ever lived up to its hype cycle and delays - objectively, going back to it years later.
It was so fresh for its time; a unique spin on racing games, yet so polished and refined on the very first try, and so loaded with stuff to do and content.
I still remember a GAF thread back in the day about the game where people were ragging on its music for simulating fun stuff like country music stations - this was before stuff like Grand Theft Auto 3 and the concept of ambient soundtracks that were "in character" with a game world, became mainstream. People were horrified with the "uncool" music in the game and calling it crap, even though the songs were expertly written and had hilarious and ingenious lyrics, especially the country stuff.
For standing up and defending the music, I actually got an email - no shit - from Richard Jacques thanking me for understanding what he'd been aiming for with the soundtrack and all the work he'd put into it. Yes, dude had been reading the NeoGAF thread and was in the dumps from everyone bitching about his soundtrack.
Despite the quality of PGR2, and despite PGR4 being my favorite as an overall game package, nothing will ever match the original MSR for IMHO representing Bizarre's exact vision for their street racing game. They weren't pressured to make it commercial in any way, such as the car selection, or using licensed music to be mainstream. It was eclectic and purely their own thing. It also had some of my favorite sections and track layouts of cities later revisited but never in those exact spots again, sadly. Some of my favorite routes were Toyko tracks that ran alongside overhead freeways before turning over a long, gentle bridge across a huge river - an iconic Japanese location not seen that often in video games, for some reason.
blindrocket
Member
They are becoming more efficient killers.Aaron said:
faceless007
Member
At the rate they're going, they'll have to change their name to Treyarch-Blizzard.
Tylahedras
Banned
This is my fault for not buying Blur, sorry guys I meant to get it, I was just busy.
Anticitizen One
Banned
something I always wondered. Originally Project Gotham Racing was pitched as the sequel to Metropolis Street Racer. Were the titles intentionally made to be a superman/batman reference?
grap3fruitman
Banned
Where's my Geometry Wars 3? Damn it Activision, stop ruining everything that's good in the world. >=(
The Bookerman said:
Until Bungie makes another Halo. In which case screw the contract, let's litigate.
Sucks if Bizzare really is gone. I have PGR1 (no, not 2, not 3, not 4. ONE.) and it was really good. The soundtrack was pretty good techno music as well.
I'm part of the problem, I guess. I didn't buy blur and just stuck with the demo (the demo servers are shut down for the past two months now, IIRC) and the PS3/360 beta they did. I didn't see the need to pay $60, esp. given it was ATVI and them going to get a Blur 2 out next year. (Which isn't the case now, hind-sight and all).
:/
PGR2? A lot of people seem to be glossing over about how amazing PGR4 was to talk about PGR2. It's likely that more of the PGR4 team were with Bizarre than PGR2 AND PGR4 had the world's most fun driving model hands down. I'm sure you'd have more fun with it side-by-side with PGR2 (though the online implementation of 2 was, and is, the best I've seen in a racer).Brettison said:
Sorry if I'm sounding aggressive, it just frustrates me how criminally underrated (and neglected) PGR4 was by the general public and even racing fans in general. Still far prefer it over any of the Forza games and any other racing game to date.
Rated-Rsuperstar
Member
Fuck you Activision.
jamesinclair
Banned
WTF at budcat.
I dont own any Bizarre games, but I own various Budcat titles.
Fucking Activison.
Anybody know what they were working on or just finished?
I dont own any Bizarre games, but I own various Budcat titles.
Fucking Activison.
Anybody know what they were working on or just finished?
Annoys me too, there is not PGR4 praise, and people just assume it was just an average title, when in fact it pretty badly shits on many other racers. Though really, PGR2 > PGR2 > PGR1 = PGR3.Shaneus said:
PGR2 and 4 had the most amazing and amazingly unique driving models. PGR1's was unrefined and PGR3 went way too arcadey with the car handling and different powersliding multipliers.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Who are Budcat? They sound like a developer that would be making some WalMart exclusive budget Kid Rock racing game or something.
Rated-Rsuperstar
Member
Maybe EA will help these guys reform a new studio under their EA partners program.
water_wendi said:
But it's not true, at least he understood after buying Bizarre that the studio was good at making games in a genre, namely arcade racing, that at best treaded water once in a while to stay afloat, and that it didn't have a big enough wheel house to do anything else, these guys were not hit-makers, and the shooter genre just isn't part of their competency, if Activision wants to make a shitty third-person shooter, they can hire everybody from Obsidian to High Moon, they don't need an in-house, 200 man-strong studio for that.
Poimandres said:
Bizarre are indeed very talented developers but at 200 employees it's a rather large (and presumably expensive) studio. Most potential purchasers are only going to be interested in their racing expertise, and you don't need 200 people for that.
I think the only publisher who would be interested is EA and they're already set when it comes to racing games. I bet the whole reason Activision purchased Bizarre in the first place was as a "fuck you" to EA. During that year EA killed THPS with Skate and then slowed Guitar Hero with Rock Band. Kotick probably wanted to return the favor and come up with some kind of Need for Speed killer.
Rated-Rsuperstar said:
The whole partners program is a complete bend-over for top tier, hit-making developers who hold all the cards, why would EA want help these guys reform a new studio with EA money and then not have any IP rights when the Bizarre guys really don't have any leverage right now?
Fox Mulder
Member
Fuck you activision.
Bizarre Creations made great games, and PGR4 was some of the most fun I've had racing this gen. Blur was great fun online, but it was marketing horribly, and released in what turned out to be a bad month anyways. Too bad they were shoved the 007 license, as I wanted to see what they could make otherwise.
guess they shouldn't have gone to activision.
Bizarre Creations made great games, and PGR4 was some of the most fun I've had racing this gen. Blur was great fun online, but it was marketing horribly, and released in what turned out to be a bad month anyways. Too bad they were shoved the 007 license, as I wanted to see what they could make otherwise.
guess they shouldn't have gone to activision.
Rated-Rsuperstar
Member
Kittonwy said:
Because it makes EA look good.
Ninja Scooter
Member
bkfount said:
What exactly would you have done different with blur? Everyone says it was marketed badly but it actually got a fair share of commercials (which is a LOT more than you can say for a lot of non-big name IPs these days) and it was plastered all over blogs and websites from what I can remember. If they release it 1Q people will say it was sent to die, if it's released in the summer people will say games don't sell well in the summer, if they release it Q3 or Q4 people will say it got overshadowed by the bigger IPs. The game just didn't resonate with people, regardless of quality. It wouldn't be the first quality game to not sell well, good marketing or not. You can't force the public to buy a game.
Kittonwy said:
EAP doesn't really fund anything directly. They normally work through completion bonded arrangements, where a financier will front the dev cost throughout development, and EA will reimburse at the end of the project assuming it makes it to the end of completion.
So, if they basically gave a publishing deal to a newly formed studio, that could help secure financing both for a project and studio as it provides a route to market, EA locks in a talented team, doesn't need to put down any money up front, and doesn't have any production risk.
Mario said:
If development falls apart would EA still be responsible for reimbursement? If the game gets completed but turns out to be a commercial failure would EA still have to eat the loss?
I agree it's a way to get in bed with a powerhouse developer like Zampella/West, but I'm not sure the folks at Bizarre are remotely in the same league when it comes to creating a megahit IP, and I don't think it's the best model if you're the publisher and the newly formed studio really doesn't have much leverage at the negotiation table.
While I do think Bizarre is a talented team, their strength is the arcade racing genre which simply isn't popular enough right now, and outside of geometry wars they can't really do anything else, and EA has most genres covered with their internal teams. It's sad that Bizarre got closed down but I just don't see EA picking them up when they already have Criterion.
You did it there as well :lolenzo_gt said:
Perhaps I don't have as fond memories of PGR2 because I didn't get into the MP as much as some of you nutjobs out there and I just prefer the slightly more MTV-ish presentation of PGR4. So I'mma going PGR4 > PGR2 = MSR > PGR3 > PGR1. Mind you, the margins between those games aren't great... I loved them all, to be honest (just to varying degrees).
Ninja Scooter
Member
why do people keep mentioning MS as a potential landing spot? Didn't MS just ditch Bizarre like 2 years (and 2 flops) ago? If Donovan McNabb got cut would people be saying "Ooooh maybe the Eagles will sign him!"
Kittonwy said:
No.
Yes, though typically a publishing deal will be geared for EAP to recoup their bonding payout (and potentially earn margin) before any sales revenue/profits went to a reformed dev team.
With that being the case, EAP could stack the terms of the deal in their favour. While a lot of their deals don't see them taking IP ownership, that would possibly be one bargining chit in this case.
I'm not suggesting it is necessarily a great idea, only that there is a way to do a mutually beneficial deal.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
I always wondered about PGR4......always see it on the used shelves for obscenely low prices, when I thought it was supposed to be a system seller. What happened there?
Ninja Scooter
Member
FoneBone said:
a lot of games get NO commercial play and do okay for themselves. If a developer needs the perfect storm (the perfect commercial, the perfect audience, the perfect release date, ect...) just for their game to turn a profit then it's not surprising that a publisher won't want to keep pumping money into them hoping for that perfect game to come along.
butter_stick
Banned
Came out at a very bad time (right next to Halo I think) and just never got the mindshare the previous game did. Shame. It's a great game.mattiewheels said:
Everyone traded it in when it came with their new 360s. Such a shame people en large don't really like racing games. It's as if there is some sort of artificial ceiling for racing games in terms of "success," closing in on a niche. Activision thought they could break this ceiling using Blur. Activision thought wrong.mattiewheels said:
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Wow, that's a shame. Seeing those stacks of 7.99 PGR4s made me assume it was terrible or something....I guess you guys would say it's much better than 3?