Bizarre’s Closure Down to “A Perfect Storm of Unfortunate Circumstances”

Former Bizarre design manager Gareth Wilson talked to Eurogamer about the development studio’s demise, citing “a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances” as the reason for its closure.

“It was a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances,” he said. “The landscape of the industry has changed massively even in the time from when Bizarre was acquired. In particular, getting a new IP noticed at this stage of the console cycle combined with the global economic situation, meaning gamers are less willing to ‘take a risk,’ is really difficult.”

Referring to Blur, which reported $40m at stake on sales performance but only sold 31,000 units in five days in the US, Wilson said that the packed release window they was less than ideal.

“The release date probably didn’t help,” he said, “but nowadays that ‘middle ground’ of two to three million sales is getting harder to find.”

Bizarre’s 17-year stint in the industry saw the creation of Metropolis Street Racer and the closet-sequel in the Project Gotham Racing series. After being acquired by Activision in 2007, the studio released Blur three years later, only to run into a host of problems which led to the shutdown of the Liverpool-based team last Friday.

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