Gaming Critical Hit: Activision's Bizarre Decision

Activision recently decided to close Project Gotham developer, Bizarre Creations. We ask why.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2011/01/30/critical-hit-activision-s-bizarre-decision/1

 

$745 million in profits, yet they can't keep one of the UK's last game studios running. Activision don't deserve to be in the game business at all.

 

Activision's release slate for this year is taking a new direction, of course COD is pencilled in for 09.11 but with the return of Spyro the Dragon (with new toy scanner thing). Goldeneye looking likely to be on next gen and one of the music franchises being axed/re-born. Something had to give and it was the UK studio that failed.

 

This is BS, total BS.
The MSR and PGR series are my favourite ever racers and now, knowing activision, they'll be remade at some point by a vastly inferior studio and totally ruin yet another decent franchise with their out and out greed.

 

the only thing i find bizarre about this, is why did activison buy this game studio in the first place, looking through their list of games shows nothing noteworthy, they all seem to be either unheard of, or just plain average (project gotham for instance)

 

There was never going to be a PGR5 and you no one's going to force you to buy the new one so I wouldn't worry about the remake.

 

Bummer, no more geometry wars

PGR was a bloody good racing franchise.

 

Activision have pretty much said on many occasions that they plan to suck the industry dry for quick profits. The only real hope is that EA, THQ, Sega and some of the other smaller publishers can pick up the pieces and get all these talented people working on something that is original or at least doesn't have a number higher than 3 as a suffix.

 

This is a real shame. Hopefully, the staff will get snapped up by other studios where their talents can be put to good use. I wish them the best of luck. As for Activision, their attitude towards the industry really sucks.

 

My Thanks goes out to the Bizzare crew. Supplying us with great games since the Amiga.

Theres several points here. Firstly like you've mentioned the government giving the games industry the shaft. Thats not surprising since they've gone back on almost every promise they've made. So why would games companies invest in Britain. Easier to go off to Canada or some such and get tax breaks.

The industry needs a bad guy to point its finger at. It used to be EA now its activision. I suppose this is down to a couple of factors in my view. Your only as good as your last game. If your last game wasn't wildly successful, it doest matter your pedigree or back catalog. Your in trouble, and also the need for endless rehash of past titles ie COD and guitar hero like was mentioned.

Its a rubbish industry, and i feel so sorry for the people who get caught in the middle. These hard working people find themselves without a job because the publisher is to buisy looking for the next hot studio to gobble up, make one game the close down. Activision should invest in there current studios.

With COD getting more and more suck, Guitar Hero not selling as well as it used to. Activision could find itself relying on blizard completely.

 

What do you expect from a company headed by a slimeball like Bobby Kotick.......nothing but a corporate ass raider.

 

A company that admits to sucking every last drop of financial 'meat' from the carcasses it calls games, dropping a studio that didnt produce enough 'meat' ,wheres the surprise?

Fur Fighters was Awesome!!!!!

 

Shame, Blur wasn't my cup of tea, however a few mates picked it up in the last steam sale and liked it. Probably wasn't hyped as much as other Activision games (definitely not as much as the COD franchise).

It will be a depressing future if none of the big publishers take a chance on some of the more innovative ideas out there and are not willing to invest significant amounts of cash on anything that isn't a sequel.

Saying that, there do seem to be a number of smaller UK developers benefitting from releasing games on mobile platforms and social networking sites etc.

 

True & I can't be bothered doing another activision rant .

But if blur was released on steam when it was new I would have bought it, but no for some stupid reason it didn't release for uk steamers until long after the buzz of the game fizzed out, I even passed on it in the steam sale.

 

This was probably a perfectly valid financial move by Activision. I was also surprised when they dropped double fine, brutal legend looked awesome! Thing was, it wasn't, and they were in the best position to see that. The end result was a game that was a commercial flop and a loss for EA.
Don't get me wrong, I loathe Activision, but there are reasons they're the most profitable publisher, and ditching devs that show weakness is one of them.

 

wow can you imagine what an amazing game you could make with all the money.....hhhmmm idea anyone?

 

Activision, this is one of the most greediest publisher. Games released years ago still selling at full price and not just full price but overprice.

Heck, I can't even remember since the last time I play game publishes by them.

 

Ugh... Activision, go die in a fire! I abhor all of your games, and you Bobby should go down in the fire alongside all your belongings...

Just to clarify one other thing in this article though, and in many other articles, Activsion has absolutely NOTHING to do with Blizzard, they can't decide anything over Blizzard, which i thank whatever is up there for.
Activsion and Blizzard are like brothers, and they have a father named Vivendi.
ie, Bobby Kotick haven't infected Blizzard with AIDS, and Blizzard has the brains to use condoms (yeah, this became weird seeing i said they are brothers up there, but whatever)

 

The reason they're the most profitable publisher is Blizzard, end of. Yes, Brutal Legend was a bit pap, but if Activision 'knew it was going to be crap and wanted rid of it', why did they try and stamp on Double Fine/EA in the courts to prevent the game being released?

It was pretty much made clear by Activision that they were binning every studio producing games that couldn't deliver multiple year-on-year sequels - Double Fine were all about innovation, which placed them at odds with AB's company line.

 

shirley its all about competion if you can employ some cheeeep lot from cheeeeep land then they will do just that , and this contry-s leaders hates kids playing games they think kids should be working in sweat shops or corner ones . capitalism and Dividends are the problem why make it here when you can have the same for next to nowt somewhere else