Bizarre’s Closing, Pitchford’s Thoughts 0
After being devoured by Activision, Bizarre Creation’s closed. You know, the guys that did PGR and Geometry Wars. I guess they thought it was a good idea. With Activision, they developed Blur, which was alright, and 007: Blood Stone which is unfortunately shit king of shit mountain (I’m sure if Brosnan was the lead…the game would be magically better). They had this to say:
“We were always proudly independent. However, when Activision took over, we really felt that they would leave our culture alone, and for a while it was fine, but slowly the feeling did start to change,” says former creative director Martyn Chudley. “We weren’t an independent studio making ‘our’ games anymore – we were making games to fill slots. Although we did all believe in them, they were more the products of committees and analysts. The culture we’d worked on for so long gradually eroded just enough so that it wasn’t ‘ours’ anymore.”
No shit. I’m pretty sure we, gamers, sat around at our computers reading the original news thinking that Bizarre Creations is making a bad move. Someone had to tell them. Was it a known risk? What they said back in 2007:
“Our goal at Bizarre Creations has always been to do all we can to nurture our creative and passionate teams, who excel at and enjoy what they do. Activision’s independent studio model will continue giving us creative freedom to build exciting new brands. Their financial support and marketing prowess will also enable us to build upon the commercial success that we currently enjoy, and take the company – and our games – to an even higher level.”
I told you so. But again, maybe they took the risk willingly? Did they really think this was going to turn out well? Whatever the case, it’s too bad this talent has been scattered.
The whole gaming industry has been changing like crazy with no telling what will work. Multiplayer seems to do the trick, though Randy Pitchford isn’t too keen on the tactic:
“publishers are forcing multiplayer modes onto games they do not suit because of an obsessive desire to keep pace with blockbusters like Call Of Duty.” Also that: “decisions are often motivated by the desire to tick boxes on a feature list, rather than for the good of the game itself.”
I completely understand what he’s saying, but…NO SHIT. This is old news, and something that has long been passed over. Dead Space 2, from EA, is an example of a game that didn’t need multiplayer. And Bioshock 2? Let’s go back to EA. For a while, EA was shit. Around 2007 (most development started before though), they got their act together and started doing some cool, riskier stuff. But from that point on, their numbers were low. They were making games for gamers and not catering to the mass market. So, they had to change. How would they change?
Anytime a new FPS is talked about. People. Ask. About. Multiplayer. It doesn’t matter if it’s Bioshock or fucking Metroid. People want it. No multiplayer? It doesn’t sell. So, developers had to carefully implement MP while still giving the player a unique SP experience.
Randy Pitchford can get away with complaining about it because they make multi-player-centric games. Gearbox has nothing to worry about. Duke Nukem will sell on its legendary hype alone. But, I challenge Gearbox to create a new IP that is single-player only. Even a deep experience like Brothers in Arms didn’t sell too good during its last iteration. Luckily, their other products make up for that (looking forward to the new BiA). What Gearbox hasn’t been doing that publishers have been now, is investing in and creating budget downloadable games. With Gearbox’s talent, I’d like to see what they could put out there.
