Bizarre Creations Bought Out By Activision
Activision Adds High Quality Racing Franchise To Catalogue
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Word is out that Activision has picked up famed racing game developer Bizarre Creations. The acquisition represents Activision's ongoing movement to break into new genres in hopes of keeping its reigning title of biggest third-party publisher. As many a gamer knows, last year Activision snapped up the smaller publisher, Red Octane, of the mega-popular Guitar Hero franchise to move into the music genre.
Bizarre Creations is best known for their contributions to the racing genre, most notably the Project Gotham Racing series, along with its Kudos point system and the multi-platform Geometry Wars game. Currently they are working on The Club for SEGA and plan to release the third-party action title in early 2008 for PC, PS3 and Xbox360.
The acquisition will see the U.K.-based dev house become a wholly owned subsidiary of the publishing giant with no changes made to management. Bizarre will be developing two all new AAA titles for Activision while they finish up work on their current projects. Activision hopes to see their first title in 2009 and has decided not to disclose the financial details.
As for their part Bizarre wanted to make a few things clear about the purchase: "Bizarre isn't a developer in financial trouble, and we're certainly not looking to be 'saved' by a bigger corporation. We're a dev looking to take our games to the next level, and make the absolute best products we can possibly make. Likewise, Activision is not in the business of 'buying out' struggling developers either."
The website continued on with some scant details of the upcoming Activision titles: "One will be a racing game, and the other a character game. Of course we'll make some more detailed announcements in the future, but be prepared for something big and exciting!"
Bizarre Creations is best known for their contributions to the racing genre, most notably the Project Gotham Racing series, along with its Kudos point system and the multi-platform Geometry Wars game. Currently they are working on The Club for SEGA and plan to release the third-party action title in early 2008 for PC, PS3 and Xbox360.
The acquisition will see the U.K.-based dev house become a wholly owned subsidiary of the publishing giant with no changes made to management. Bizarre will be developing two all new AAA titles for Activision while they finish up work on their current projects. Activision hopes to see their first title in 2009 and has decided not to disclose the financial details.
As for their part Bizarre wanted to make a few things clear about the purchase: "Bizarre isn't a developer in financial trouble, and we're certainly not looking to be 'saved' by a bigger corporation. We're a dev looking to take our games to the next level, and make the absolute best products we can possibly make. Likewise, Activision is not in the business of 'buying out' struggling developers either."
The website continued on with some scant details of the upcoming Activision titles: "One will be a racing game, and the other a character game. Of course we'll make some more detailed announcements in the future, but be prepared for something big and exciting!"