Bizarre Creations

Bizarre Creations Limited
Subsidiary
Industry Video game industry
Fate Dissolved
Founded 1988 (1988)
Defunct 18 February 2011 (2011-02-18)
Headquarters Liverpool, England
Products Geometry Wars series
Project Gotham Racing series
Parent Activision
Website www.bizarrecreations.com

Bizarre Creations Limited was a British video game development studio based in Liverpool, best known for their racing titles Metropolis Street Racer (Dreamcast) and the follow-up Project Gotham Racing series (Xbox, Xbox 360). The company has also developed games in other genres, including the Geometry Wars arcade series, plus third-person shooters Fur Fighters and The Club. Bizarre Creations was acquired by publisher Activision in 2007, and subsequently completed its racer Blur in May 2010.

On 20 January 2011, Activision announced Bizarre Creations would close, and later confirmed the date. Bizarre marked the closure by releasing a retrospective video of its life's work.[1]

History

A screen-shot taken from Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast showing the Bizarre Creations logo used during the year 2000–2001.

Bizarre Creations started as Raising Hell Software, founded by Martyn Chudley. Sega scorned "Hell", and the company went nameless for a short time. In 1994, a pending submission to Psygnosis/Sony forced the decision of a new name. The founder tentatively left "Weird Concepts" on the submission documentation. Then a staff member used Microsoft Word's thesaurus, and "Bizarre Creations" stuck.

The Bizarre Creations team was initially five strong, and worked on a concept project called "Slaughter". After seeing the demo, Psygnosis signed the team onto Formula 1 (for PlayStation). Formula 1 went on to become the best selling game in Europe in 1996.

In 2006, the studio announced a break in its racing genre sequence with The Club. A third-person shooter, the game was released on 7 February 2008.

On 26 September 2007, publisher Activision acquired Bizarre Creations.[2] for $107.4m; $67.4m immediately payable with a further $40m contingent hitting certain goals over a 5-year period.[3]

Activision announced that Project Gotham Racing 4 would be Bizarre Creations' last game for Microsoft Game Studios,[4] and Activision did not pursue the rights for the Project Gotham Racing franchise.

On 16 November 2010, Activision announced it was considering closing Bizarre and "exploring our options regarding the future of the studio, including a potential sale of the business".[5] Activision later stated that no buyer could be found and that the studio would close.[6]

Games

As Raising Hell Software

Year Title Platform(s)
1990 The Killing Game Show / Fatal Rewind Amiga, Atari ST, Mega Drive (1991)
1993 Wiz 'n' Liz Amiga, Mega Drive

As Bizarre Creations

Year Game Platform(s)
PS1 Win DC PS2 Xbox GBA X360 PS3 Wii NDS iOS
1996 Formula 1 Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No
1997 Formula 1 97 / Formula 1 Championship Edition Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No
2000 Metropolis Street Racer No No Yes No No No No No No No No
2000 Fur Fighters No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
2001 Fur Fighters: Viggo's Revenge No No No Yes No No No No No No No
2001 Project Gotham Racing No No No No Yes No No No No No No
2002 Treasure Planet Yes Yes No No No Yes No No No No No
2003 Project Gotham Racing 2 No No No No Yes No No No No No No
2005 Project Gotham Racing 3 No No No No No No Yes No No No No
2005 Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved No Yes No No No No Yes No No No No
2007 Boom Boom Rocket No No No No No No Yes No No No No
2007 Project Gotham Racing 4 No No No No No No Yes No No No No
2007 Geometry Wars: Galaxies No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No
2008 The Club No Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No
2008 Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 No No No No No No Yes No No No No
2010 Geometry Wars: Touch No No No No No No No No No No Yes
2010 Blur No Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No
2010 James Bond 007: Blood Stone [7][8] No Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No

References

  1. ↑ Wesley Yin-Poole (18 February 2011). "Bizarre says goodbye with farewell video News – - Page 1". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  2. ↑ Studio News – Bizarre Creations Archived 5 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ "Bizarre Creations for Activision_Blizzard (ATVI)". Wikinvest.com. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  4. ↑ "Activision buys Bizarre – News". www.developmag.com. 26 September 2007. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  5. ↑ Rainier (16 November 2010). "Activision Looking To Close Or Sell Bizarre Creations". WorthPlaying. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
  6. ↑ Fred Dutton (19 January 2011). "Activision finalises Bizarre closure News – - Page 1". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  7. ↑ "James Bond 007: Blood Stone Leaks". IGN. 16 July 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2010.
  8. ↑ "James Bond 007: Bloodstone confirmed". GameSpot. 16 July 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2010.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.