Despite the apparent u-turn when news originally hit that Blur creator Bizarre Creations was not being closed but merely put up for sale by publisher Activision, it appears that the Liverpool-based studio will indeed shut its doors. The root of the decision is quoted as the lacklustre sales response to the developer’s new racing IP, Blur.
Activision Worldwide Studios’ chief operating officer Coddy Johnson has told Develop that, despite “exploring a lot of deals,” the developer will not continue to operate. He said:
Unfortunately so far we’ve not been able to find any interested parties. So we’ve made, as a last resort, a recommendation to the team for closure.
I want to be clear, our first choice was to try and keep this group together and find a buyer for the studio.
Regrettably for the 200 people at Bizarre, a buyer has not been found. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by this decision.
Source: Develop
ElGuason
cool beans
andytorr
Probably has something to do with Blur being completely pants.
Foxhound_Solid
Sorry to hear that. MSR/PGR cracking games
Rocket_345
Shame. Was hoping for Blur to become a franchise as it was a decent game but suffered from bad timing of release.
UKZ-N3M1515
Respawn receive 200 applications :D
Best of luck to these folk
solidsteven
Can’t Activision divert some funds to help Bizzare. CODBO must of made them more than enough for them to spare. I think the reason it didn’t sell well was because of a release date which was packed with games and it had hardly any advertising support. So is this going to be a yearly thing where Acti loses a studio?:P
Lambo_1989
I’m surprised microsoft didn’t buy them for all they’ve done for them but knowing activision they are asking a arm and a leg for them. Best of luck guys :)
Gadbury
Sorry to hear this… Bizarre have made some great games and are no doubt a talented studio. Activision are being daft.
Perhaps the thing about Blur is this. Split Second came out around the same time and those two games I seem to get confused with each other, although I’ve played neither.
TSBonyman
Always a shame to hear of people losing their jobs and of game developers shutting down. Blur was a good game and should have done better for them.
If Activision hold the rights to Blur i suppose they might try rebooting the franchise later on and get one of their other studios to develop it.
Crazy_Del
Does this mean the servers on BLUR will be shut down?!?!?
I ask this because I bought Split Second and Blur on Day one but was on S/S the most it was a brilliant game, Blur on other hand is indeed a brilliant game aswell, very different to S/S. I am lvl 40 in Blur online and the highest is 50 which I want to unlock the Legend Mode.