Formerly | Raising Hell Software Limited (1988–1994) |
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Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Video games |
Founded | 1988 |
Founder | Martyn Chudley |
Defunct | February 18, 2011 |
Fate | Dissolved |
Successor | Lucid Games |
Headquarters | Liverpool, England |
Key people |
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Products |
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Number of employees | 200 [1] (2011) |
Parent |
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Website |
Bizarre Creations Limited was a British video game development studio based in Liverpool, best known for their racing titles Metropolis Street Racer (Dreamcast) and the follow-up Project Gotham Racing series (Xbox, Xbox 360, mobile phones and Zune HD). The company has also developed games in other genres, including the Geometry Wars arcade series, plus the third-person shooters Fur Fighters and The Club . Bizarre Creations was acquired by publisher Activision in 2007, and subsequently completed its racer Blur in May 2010.
On 20 January 2011, Activision announced Bizarre Creations would close, and later confirmed the date. Bizarre marked the closure by releasing a retrospective video of its work. [2]
Bizarre Creations started as Raising Hell Software, founded by Martyn Chudley. Sega scorned "Hell", and the company went nameless for a short time. In 1994, a pending submission to Psygnosis/Sony forced the decision of a new name. The founder tentatively left "Weird Concepts" on the submission documentation. Then a staff member used Microsoft Word's thesaurus, and "Bizarre Creations" stuck.
The Bizarre Creations team was initially five strong, and worked on a concept project called "Slaughter". After seeing the demo, Psygnosis signed the team onto Formula 1 for PlayStation. Formula 1 went on to become the best-selling game in Europe in 1996.
On 26 September 2007, publisher Activision acquired Bizarre Creations [3] for $107.4m; $67.4m immediately payable with a further $40m contingent hitting certain goals over a 5-year period. [4]
Activision announced that Project Gotham Racing 4 would be Bizarre Creations' last game for Microsoft Game Studios, [5] and Microsoft did retain the rights for the Project Gotham Racing franchise.
On 16 November 2010, Activision announced it was considering closing Bizarre and "exploring our options regarding the future of the studio, including a potential sale of the business". [6] Activision later stated that no buyer could be found and that the studio would close. [7] The studio would conclude with a two minute farewell video, put together by in-house editor Eamon Urtone. [2] [8] [9] [10]
Pete Collier, Ben Ward and Stephen Cakebread of Bizarre Creations founded mobile game developer Hogrocket in 2011, and shut it down the following year. [11] A week after the closure of the studio, many former employees went on to found Lucid Games, which continued development on the Geometry Wars franchise, among various other ventures. [12]
Year | Title | Platform(s) |
---|---|---|
as Raising Hell Software | ||
1988 | Combat Crazy | Commodore 64 |
1990 | The Killing Game Show | Amiga, Atari ST, Sega Mega Drive |
1993 | Wiz 'n' Liz | Amiga, Sega Mega Drive |
as Bizarre Creations | ||
1996 | Formula 1 | PlayStation, Microsoft Windows |
1997 | Formula 1 97 | PlayStation, Microsoft Windows |
2000 | Fur Fighters | Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 |
2000 | Metropolis Street Racer | Dreamcast |
2001 | Project Gotham Racing | Xbox |
2002 | Treasure Planet | Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2 |
2003 | Project Gotham Racing 2 | Xbox |
2005 | Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved | Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows |
2005 | Project Gotham Racing 3 | Xbox 360 |
2007 | Boom Boom Rocket | Xbox 360 |
2007 | Project Gotham Racing 4 | Xbox 360 |
2007 | Geometry Wars: Galaxies | Wii, Nintendo DS |
2008 | The Club | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
2008 | Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 | Xbox 360 |
2010 | Geometry Wars: Touch | iOS |
2010 | Blur | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
2010 | James Bond 007: Blood Stone [13] | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.
Rare Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Twycross, Leicestershire. Rare's games span the platform, first-person shooter, action-adventure, fighting, and racing genres. Its most popular games include the Battletoads, Donkey Kong, and Banjo-Kazooie series, as well as games like GoldenEye 007 (1997), Perfect Dark (2000), Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001), Viva Piñata (2006), and Sea of Thieves (2018).
Project Gotham Racing is a 2001 arcade-style racing video game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Microsoft Game Studios, released exclusively for the Xbox console as a launch title. It serves as the spiritual successor to Bizarre's Metropolis Street Racer and retains the Kudos system, which awards points for driving skills and style, necessary for progression rather than solely finishing races in first place. Races occur across four real-world cities, featuring a total of 204 unique circuits. The game achieved both critical and commercial success, launching the exclusive Project Gotham Racing series that continued with Project Gotham Racing 2 in 2003.
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Project Gotham Racing 2 is a 2003 arcade-style racing video game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released exclusively for the Xbox in November 2003 as the successor to 2001's Project Gotham Racing.
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Project Gotham Racing 3 is a 2005 arcade-style racing video game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Microsoft Game Studios as the third entry of the Project Gotham Racing series. It was released exclusively for the Xbox 360 as a launch title in November 2005. The game was rated by Official Xbox Magazine as Xbox 360 "Game of the Year" (2005), as well as "Best 1st Person of the Year", because of its realistic inside-car view. A sequel, Project Gotham Racing 4, was released in October 2007.
Formula 1 97 is a racing video game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Psygnosis for PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to the 1996 video game Formula 1 and was based on the 1997 Formula One World Championship. This was the last Formula One game to be made by the Bizarre Creations team, who moved on to create the successful Metropolis Street Racer for the Dreamcast and Project Gotham Racing for the Xbox.
Geometry Wars is a 2003 video game by Bizarre Creations. Initially a minigame in Project Gotham Racing 2, an updated version, titled Retro Evolved, was eventually released for the Xbox 360. That version, at one point, held the record for the most downloaded Xbox Live Arcade Game.
Quantum Redshift is a video game for the Xbox console, developed by Curly Monsters and published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2002. The game is a futuristic racing game with the addition of combat and character rivalries that influence competitive races. Quantum Redshift was conceived as a spiritual successor to the racing game Wipeout and was developed by several former Psygnosis staff who worked on the game. The game's publication faced challenges, as Curly Monsters staff voiced creative differences regarding packaging and marketing by Microsoft Game Studios. The game received mixed to average reviews from critics, with praise directed at the game's visual presentation and smooth framerate, and criticism towards the lack of distinctive and original features in its design and gameplay compared to its contemporaries. The game was commercially unsuccessful, leading to the discontinuation of a planned sequel and the dissolution of Curly Monsters in 2003.
Project Gotham Racing 4 is a 2007 racing video game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The fourth main title of the Project Gotham Racing series, it was released exclusively for the Xbox 360 in October 2007. New features included weather effects, Bulldog mode, and the inclusion of motorcycles. Like its predecessors, PGR4 was a critical and commercial success, however it would be the final title in the series, with Bizarre having since been acquired by Activision, and announcing that Project Gotham Racing 4 would be their last game produced for distribution by Microsoft Game Studios.
Project Gotham Racing (PGR) is a series of racing video games published by Microsoft Studios, with four main titles all of which were developed by Bizarre Creations. It is the spiritual successor to Bizarre Creations' previous game Metropolis Street Racer, released by Sega for the Dreamcast in 2000. The PGR series was released on the Xbox and Xbox 360, with spin-offs appearing on mobile phones.
Boom Boom Rocket (BBR) is a downloadable video game for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. Boom Boom Rocket is the first rhythm game for Xbox Live Arcade and was developed by Geometry Wars creators Bizarre Creations and published by the Pogo division of Electronic Arts. The game was made backwards compatible on Xbox One on July 26, 2016.
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is a multidirectional shooter developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Microsoft Game Studios and Activision. It was released on Xbox Live Arcade on July 30, 2008 as a sequel to Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. It was followed by Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions, a sequel published in 2014 by Lucid Games, which was founded by former members of Bizarre Creations.
Blur is a 2010 arcade-style racing video game for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Activision. Blur features a racing style that incorporates real world cars and locales with arcade style handling and vehicular combat. The game is a spiritual successor to the Project Gotham Racing series. Blur was the penultimate game developed by Bizarre Creations before they were shut down by Activision on February 18, 2011.
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Lucid Games Limited is a British video game developer based in Liverpool. The studio was founded in February 2011 by former employees of Bizarre Creations, which had been shut down a week earlier. Games developed by Lucid Games include Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions (2014) and Destruction AllStars (2021).
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is a 2014 multidirectional shooter video game developed by Lucid Games and published by Activision under the Sierra Entertainment brand name. The game was released on November 25, 2014 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, day later for Xbox 360 and Xbox One and in the middle of 2015 for iOS and Android. As the sequel to Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is the first game in the series to be released on Sony platforms. It is the sixth installment in the Geometry Wars series and the first one developed after the creator of the series Bizarre Creations was shut down by Activision.
Geometry Wars is a series of top-down multi-directional shooter video games developed by Bizarre Creations, and, later, Lucid Games. Originally published by Microsoft Games Studios, the first title was included as a minigame in Project Gotham Racing 2 for Xbox. An updated version was released in 2005 as a launch title for Xbox 360 and later ported to Windows. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, the second installment in the series, was released for the Xbox 360 in 2008.
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