Bizarre Creations set to close

[Family Fry]

Looks like Bizarre may be bought by a Publisher.
Would put forward EA and MS as two possible buyers, EA could tag Need For Speed onto Bizarre or MS get PGR back. Good news if jobs are saved.

[Prototype]

Why buy them? Wait for them to be closed down and snap them up then would be the sensible thing to do. Form a new studio with a different name.

[Flabio]

Depends. If the staff don't think a buyer is going to turn up then they'll start applying for other jobs. Wait too long and most of the people that make the studio worth owning will already have moved to new companies.

Games studios only value is their IP and their staff. And the IP here almost certainly belongs to Acti and/or MS already, so basically the staff is all you're going to get. So you'll want to get in while most of them are still there.

[EvilBoris]

Well that's it, I'm assuming if it's closed it has been closed by Activision, considering they acquired them in 2007. Unless they remain fully autonomous and their sales performance falls fully on them?

As you say, MS or EA would be better to buy an office 10 minutes down the road and just get all the important staff to start work there on monday.

[Strider]

Someone on rllmuk was saying they refused to do a Nascar game. Surely that's a bit silly seeing that its huge in the US and they are owned by someone.

[SuperBeatBoy]

No game dev should ever be made to do a Nascar game. It's too cruel!

[Number45]

Someone on rllmuk was saying they refused to do a Nascar game. Surely that's a bit silly seeing that its huge in the US and they are owned by someone.

Both stupid, and awesome. Kudos!

[EvilBoris]

Surely that would of been a hilarious piece of piss to make anyway, given that they have a super solid racing engine anyway?

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Someone on rllmuk was saying they refused to do a Nascar game. Surely that's a bit silly seeing that its huge in the US and they are owned by someone.

All they'd have to do for a NASCAR title would be to take the Barcelona Oval from Blur and the handling models from the Camaro SS Drag & Monaro VXR. Instant NASCAR game.

Hopefully they'll be saved but then would they be able to make a spiritual sequel to Blur with Activision owning the IP?

[Number45]

They should sign up with another publisher and THEN make a NASCAR game.

[Strider]

Well like I said I've no idea if it's true, but if it is and you've been bought by a company then surely you should really do as you're told no?

[Flabio]

Pretty much. They pay the wages, they get to tell you what to do. You can always leave, and people often do under those circumstances.

It does sound like several publishers have already expressed some interest in picking them up, so I guess now it just comes down to haggling over the price. And that could easily take almost all of those 90 days.

[Strider]

Well I do hope it works out for them. While I wasn't quite as enamoured with PGR as everyone else was (it took them 3 games to do everything that was in the awesome MSR) I absolutely loved the Club and rate it was one of my favourite games of this gen.

No one should be worrying about work at this time of year, so I really hope it's sorted out for everyone.

[nakamura]

I am the same as Darran except I thought the series peaked at PGR1. If the rumour is true about the Nascar game then it is somewhat silly they refused but either way it is bad timing.

[nonny]

I hope it works out for them as well... PGR was an awesome series and 3 & 4 were massive highlights in the racing genre for me. Hard to believe how long its been since PGR4 came out and GT5 still isnt here!

As for Blur. I didnt like the single player but multiplayer is absolutely awesome stuff and the UI and general setup is so damn slick. Love that game. I actually picked up four copies of it cheap recently to give to my mates for christmas because I know its a title they'd have passed over not realising it's awesomeness. I guess thats a sign of the times right there.