Sad day today, geeks: game developer Bizarre Creations is shutting down today. After the middling sales of Blur and the poor reception of their most recent project, James Bond 007: Blood Stone, Activision assessed the company and determined that all members of the Bizarre Creations staff were “redundant” (this was back in November). Now, the day has finally come when Bizarre is shutting down for good, and Bizarre’s video editor has put together a montage of all their projects. Lately Bizarre had seemed typecast into racing games, due in no small part to the success of its Project Gotham Racing series. However, Bizarre did not just racing games (although they did produce a lot of them). More notable titles from other genres include the critically acclaimed Geometry Wars series, and a title most people don’t know about called The Club. A lot of what Bizarre Creations was great at was bringing back elements from gaming’s history and making them relevant again. The Project Gotham games were great at mixing the perfect amount of arcade and simulation racing to make a title that could appeal to all sorts of racers, and Geometry Wars is the biggest reason that we’re seeing all sorts of dual joystick shooters spring up these days. We wish all of the Bizarre employees the best, and I really hope they can find work elsewhere or found a new company.
