Top Story: Bizarre Creations' final farewell, News from GamePro

You've probably played at least one Bizarre Creations game in your gaming career. Their emotional farewell to fans is a Top Story today.

Liverpool-based developer Bizarre Creations closed its doors for the last time today, and its video editor Eamon Urtone paid his respects with a touching video tribute. Bizarre had been in the business since 1994 and had the successful Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars franchises under its belt. But disappointing performance of its recent titles Blur and James Bond: Blood Stone forced current owner Activision to seek a buyer. Activision claims that no suitable buyer came forward, and as a result recommended the studio's closure in mid-January this year.

Developers come and go all the time, but Bizarre Creations holds a special place in the heart of many gamers. Its flagship Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars franchises were of such high quality that people were willing to forgive less commercially-successful forays into other genres such as The Club and Boom Boom Rocket.

Ultimately, though, it was the poor commercial performance of Bizarre's most recent titles that led to their demise. The excellent powered-up racer Blur was crippled by Activision's questionable Mario Kart-aping marketing campaign which led some gamers to misunderstand exactly what kind of game it really was. And James Bond: Blood Stone was released to rather mixed reviews. Activision, it seems, wasn't willing to take a third risk on the studio's output.

Coddy Johnson, Activision Worldwide Studios' chief operating officer, toldDevelopback in January that Activision's"first choice was to try and keep this group together and find a buyer for the studio."He added that the company had"explored a lot of leads -- pretty much anyone you can imagine in the industry"but that they had"not been able to find any interested parties."

The closure of Bizarre comes, ironically, as Microsoft is seeking a new developer to revive the Project Gotham Racing series. The PGR property remained with Microsoft when Activision swallowed Bizarre back in 2007, leading many to question why they didn't step forward to rescue the ailing developer.

Hopefully the guys and girls of Bizarre Creations will land on their feet and move on to greater things in the coming months.

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