Ex-Activision Boss Forgets Name Of “Bad Acquisition” Behind Project Gotham Racing, Blur And Geometry Wars – Time Extension
GuestLogin | Sign UpTime ExtensionGuestUserBizarre, quite franklyFormer Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has been speaking about his time in the video game industry recently, and while he’s quick to recall that GoldenEye on Wii almost didn’t have guns in it, he struggles to recall the name of one of the UK’s most respected (and now defunct) game studios (thanks, VGC).Discussing the topic of acquisitions, Kotick appeared to offer the example of Bizarre Creations, the Liverpool-based studio—responsible for Sony’s F1 games, Metropolis Street Racer, Project Gotham Racing, Blur and Geometry Wars—that Activision snapped up in 2007 for $67.4 million.”We actually had a bad acquisition,” Kotick said on the Grit podcast. “The company that was, um… in Manchester, that did the driving game for Xbox, and it was called, um…”Amazingly, he’s unable to remember the name of the company, which will do little to endear Bizarre Creations fans to the man who, ultimately, will have had a say in the decision to shutter the studio in 2010.After being purchased in 2007, Bizzare Creations would release Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Blur, and James Bond 007: Blood Stone. Blur, in particular, was a commercial flop, while Blood Stone was met with a mixed reception.”They had a good guy, who was running the day-to-day,” Kotick adds, which VGC feels is a reference to studio head Brian Woodhouse. While praising Woodhouse for being “a brilliant guy” who was into “strat planning,” Kotick was negative about the deal in general.”It was $80 million, and we wrote it off two years later. Everything about it violated all our principles. That guy was an expensive lesson.””Barbara Broccoli did not really want anything that was violence”The claim has appeared on Wikipedia, Gamespot, and elsewhere”Activision’s not sure what hard drives they’re on”[source videogameschronicle.com] PrevNext About Damien McFerranDamien has been writing professionally about tech and video games since 2007 and oversees all of Hookshot Media’s sites from an editorial perspective. He’s also the editor of Time Extension, the network’s newest site, which – paradoxically – is all about gaming’s past glories. Comments 9Blur flopped as Activision did absolutely zero publicity for the game, same with Singularity which they also released at the same time.But Bizarre was done dirty in general IMO, idiotic enough that Microsoft declined their purchase after the huge success they had with the Project Gotham series, which was probably the IP after Halo which pushed the console into the mainstream.I’ve also got a huge box full of their game assets that a fan sent me from an liquidation auction they had.I loved Bizarre. I was gutted when I heard they were closing down.I really enjoyed Blood Stone, it wasn’t the best Bond game (that’s GoldenEye!) but the gunplay was solid and the gameplay loop was mostly fun. It was only really spoilt by very samey enemies, if they could have added more variety and some boss encounters it would have been a solid game.Blur just wasn’t very good, I loved MSR & PGR but Blur left me cold. It was brave to try something different but on an AAA budget with a big publisher PGR5 might’ve been a better option, would’ve sold like gangbusters.@Blankfrak It was Project Gotham with Mario Kart mechanics.Geometry Wars enjoyers: You took everything from me!
Robert “Bobby” “”Moneyball”” Kotick: I don’t even know who you are@Guru_Larry I’ve seen this often repeated, but Blur is nowhere near the depth of any 3D Mario Kart game. The phrase might explain the concept, but it sets way too high expectations. (I thought Blur was not great.)I mean it kind of sums up the amount of though the heads of these mega corps put in. Don’t know the studio name, don’t know the people,place or games; but their failure after 1 game sold badly was all down to them and nothing to do with higher up management/marketing etc from us. Why let that studio learn from that mistake, throw that experience and the many successes before out the door. And they’ll then wonder outloud how Nintendo does so well when it doesn’t fire staff at the first sign of poor sales.I think most firms like Activision succeed despite the “Bobby Koticks” of this world, and not because of them. In charge of Nintendo he would have fired Miyamoto after Wii Music and the hardware team after the GameCube.@Grackler I think we can see a big divide in the results by now. So many western developers fell under the type of leadership that ruined Bizarre Creations, not caring about the staff, being quick to fire the talent, not understanding the value or strengths of the studio. Show Comments Leave A CommentHold on there, you need to login to post a comment…You Can Now Run Your Entire PS2 Library From This $50 Memory CardMemCard Pro 2 benefits from new MMCE systemReview: 8BitMods MemCard Pro 2 – Run PS2 Games And Manage Your Saves From This $50 Memory CardIt does eveything14 Percent Of North Americans Still Play Gaming Systems Released Before 2000New survey reveals retro is alive and well25 Years On, Skies Of Arcadia’s Technical Issues Have Been FixedFixes issues with both the PAL and NTSC versions of the classic RPGStreets Of Rage Composer Yuzo Koshiro Worked On SNES RPG Terranigma, He Just Forgot About It Until 28 Years Later”It had been completely wiped from my memory” Game ProfileTitle:BlurSystem:Xbox 360Also Available For:PS3Publisher:ActivisionDeveloper:Bizarre CreationsRelease Date:Xbox 360Where to buy:Buy on eBay
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