Bizarre Creations, a studio founded in 1994 , found their first big title with SEGA as a publisher. If you didn’t know, Bizarre Creations developed the Dreamcast racing title Metropolis Street Racer. After this the developer expanded its wings with Fur Fighter, a 3rd person shooting adventure with talking animals. Bizarre indeed. Metropolis Street Racer led into Microsoft partnership for a new racing franchise, Project Gotham Racing.
SEGA and Bizarre Creations relationship didn’t end there, almost 8 years after Metropolis Street Racer hit the Dreamcast, SEGA wanted to do another IP with the developer, this time The Club. The Club was a unique take on 3rd person shooters, using score based kills. Shortly before the game came out, Activision announced they aquired Bizarre Creations. SEGA had plans to make The Club a series, but turned it into a one title affair after the buy out.
With Activision they did their own IP, this time called Blur, a pretty good arcade racing title. The issue is that the game didn’t sell. Their last game was James Bond 007: Blood Stone that came out at the start of the month. Seems that this title, which was critically panned will be the last title from the studio. SEGA Europe, give these workers a home.
“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.”
Activision is taking 90 days to decide whether they want to sell, restructure, or close down the studio.
[Source: PCGamer]
[Via: NeoGAF]
FUCK YOU ACTIVISION.
On a much lighter note then Orta- I would definitely recomend Fur Fighters. Its a very fun game.
Fur Fighters was great, I really loved it a lot back in the day. I will be honest when I say I think the PlayStation 2 release is much better than the Dreamcast one, though.
FUCK ACTIVISION!
Fur fighters was the Shizzz. Seriously, I love that game so much. *cries manly tears*
How about Sega buying these dudes? 🙂
FUCK ACTIVISION GIVE ME MORE GOOD TONY HAWKS
I would have cared, once… But now I don't.
When we interviewed them with SegaNerds back in the day we even asked 'Why would you ever merge with Activision?' (This is just when they had announced it.)
They replied with all this praise and bullshit admiration for Activision and said.
'Why WOULDN'T we merge with Activision?'
Well here is your answer… Enjoy it Bizarre Creations.
That's PR bullshit. What were you expecting them to say really? That they thought the merger was shit and criticize it on day one? :/
Sharky says as if Sega hasn't closed good studios.
Sega's track record is worse than Activision they fucked No Cliche pretty bad.
They fucked up No Cliche? Get it through your head that No Cliche is a independent developer.
In the last decade the only 4 studios I can think of that Sega shut down/left are.
-Sega Sports 2K, Sold for a good price to Take Two when EA screwed Sega over by effectively buying a monopoly.
-Sega Racing Studio. A studio they made themselves so no real loss there… Not to mention MOST staff Sega Europe actually helped get back into Codemasters.
-Secret Level, Worst company Sega has ever owned. Proved themselves to be worthless. Were sent away with a healthy check at the end of it.
So, Not really… Sega haven't fucked anyone over. If anything they helped fund the creation of Prope and Yu Suzukis new studio and give their 2nd party developers like Platinum Games all the freedom in the world to make what ever they like.
It isn't like Sega have EVER baught a company for its IPs and then gutted it/closed it a year or two later. The 2 studios Sega did buy for their IPs. Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive have only GROWN since Segas involvment.
So Pa-LEEZ.