Activision finalises Bizarre closure

Activision has recommended that its Bizarre Creations subsidiary be closed, after no buyer came forward for the Liverpool-based studio behind Blur and James Bond 007: Blood Stone.

Back in November, Activision announced it was looking to offload the struggling developer, saying it was "exploring our options regarding the future of the studio, including a potential sale of the business."

Coddy Johnson, Activision Worldwide Studios' chief operating officer today told Develop, "I want to be clear, our first choice was to try and keep this group together and find a buyer for the studio."

Johnson insisted that it had, "explored a lot of leads – pretty much anyone you can imagine in the industry. But 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."

Apparently staff at Bizarre have indicated that they will accept the recommendation.

Bizarre started life in 1994, making its name with the Project Gotham Racing series for Microsoft Game Studios. Activision purchased the studio in September 2007 and set it to work on the poorly received James Bond 007: Blood Stone and excellent but under-performing racer Blur.

"Over the past three years since our purchase of Bizarre Creations, the fundamentals of the racing genre have changed significantly," explained an Activision spokesperson in November.

"Although we made a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur, it did not find a commercial audience."