Bizarre Creations Talks Activision

Earlier this week, Bizarre Creations - creator of Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars - surprised everyone by announcing its aquisition by mega-publisher Activision. We chatted briefly with Sarah Chudley, commercial director at Bizarre, to learn more about the deal.

IGN: Have you been looking to strike a deal like this for some time? And did you consider any other publishers, like Microsoft perhaps?

Sarah Chudley: Not really - it was more something that came out of the blue and when it did we took a good look at the potential, and ourselves. As the industry expanded, signing up deals became harder and harder, even for established developers. We felt that we needed to look at something more long term for a number of reasons.

Firstly, we enjoy making games, not being business people - spending months and months going through contract negotiations and due diligence processes in order to sign up a game isn't fun, and if deals fall through, doesn't give the security we would like going forwards. Secondly, we looked on jealously at the development support that Activision offer to the studios under their wing, and realised that it'd give us even more of a competitive advantage. And thirdly, and most importantly, it's all about the games - that's what we want to do, and the long-term game path with Activision is extremely exciting!

IGN: Why did you need to become affiliated with a publisher? Have there been financial problems at Bizarre? Sarah Chudley: We expected people to raise an eyebrow as we've always been financially stable and thankfully been very successful with our games. But that's exactly why we wanted to form this sort of partnership - a parent company can give long-term stability for all of us, meaning that instead of spending more and more time doing business things, we can give our full focus to the games. And in turn, hopefully our successes will take Activision to new heights and genres as well.

IGN: Why Activision, and what will the publisher bring to the Bizarre Creations mix?

Sarah Chudley: They 'get it'! They're a very developer-centric publisher, who work hard to nurture their studios by providing support if it's needed, but keeping out the way where it's not. I heard the term 'the developer's publisher' coined and I can see why now - they really understand how development works and how each developer has their own quirks and foibles. So we're looking forward to meeting their great studios, working with some people who'll nurture our creativity and talents and the marketing and PR muscle that has always amazed us in the past.

IGN: Any idea when we'll see the first game from Bizarre under the Activision name?

Sarah Chudley: I think officially we're looking at 'after fiscal year 2009' if that means anything to you!

IGN: Does this deal mean we might see Project Gotham Racing on multiple platforms now? Or does that belong to Microsoft?

Sarah Chudley: Microsoft own the Project Gotham Racing Brand, so sadly for all of us, PGR4 was our last PGR game. It's something that we're obviously sad to see end, but in a way, we feel it's a good time to be able to leave on a high with number 4, and with an amicable parting of the ways. It'd be horrible if the series became stale, and having done four iterations (and MSR before that) it's now a good time to give our racing team the chance to stretch their legs and move onto something new and exciting with our Activision racing title. And if Microsoft decides to continue with the series (and I know they're really passionate about it), then we're confident they'll find someone new who can look at it with a fresh pair of eyes. We look forward to seeing what they can do!

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