Activision talks Bizarre closure, cancellations

Activision's Eric Hirshberg talks frankly about the closure of Bizarre creations, the cancellation of True Crime: Hong Kong, and what the company wants from a Guitar Hero revival.

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Becoming the world's largest video game publisher is no easy task, demanding tough decisions in a constantly evolving market. Behind many of those savvy (and arguably unsavory) decisions are people like Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. His recent interview with Joystiq illuminates some of the company's recent decisions, some which attracted the ire of the gaming community.

Perhaps the most unpopular of those decisions was the one to shutter Bizzare Creations. However, Hirshberg explains that their demise was a product of their specialty. "The thing that Bizarre is best at and what they're known for and what their signature is is in the racing world," Hirshberg said. "And the decision had as much to do with our assessment of what was happening to the racing genre as it had to do with anything specific to Bizarre. We just didn't think that was the best place for us to put our competitive energies. The racing genre had shrunk, pretty precipitously."

Unsurprisingly, the disappointing sales of Blur contributed to the closure as well. "It was a big investment in marketing. And sometimes you pour the chemicals into the beaker and nothing explodes. There are these big, very well established franchises that we would be competing against, fighting for a shrinking opportunity."

True Crime: Hong Kong was another attempt to make a marquee brand for the company. Activision ended up pulling the plug when that ambition fell through. "The game had been delayed twice; the budget had been increased twice; and it had ballooned to a size where it was going to have to be a pretty incredible success in order to be worth the investment that it was taking to get it done," he said. He reiterated that the game wasn't bad, but it "was not going to be at the top of that genre."

The company's annual music games were also put on hiatus. "The Hero brand is still incredibly powerful and potent. It's one of the best known entertainment brands in the world," Hirshberg said. But now, Activision is looking to "generate meaningful innovation and meaningful reinvention" to bring Guitar Hero back. "What we couldn't afford to continue doing was putting out iterative improvements of the same idea because that idea had run out of gas in the marketplace."

DJ Hero suffered a similar fate, due to a "smaller audience." And while some licensed tracks were cheaper than the big-name rock songs found in Guitar Hero, tracks from artists like Lady Gaga and Eminem drove up costs, as well as the game's conceit of mashing up two tracks at a time. He says DJ Hero "had every opportunity and it didn't succeed. At the end of the day, we've got to take a clear-eyed look at that."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 23, 2011 9:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Activision talks Bizarre closure, cancellations.

    Activision's Eric Hirshberg talks frankly about the closure of Bizarre creations, the cancellation of True Crime: Hong Kong, and what the company wants from a Guitar Hero revival.

    • reply
      June 23, 2011 9:05 AM

      I like the part where he says Blur "was a big investment in marketing".

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        June 23, 2011 9:14 AM

        Yup. They had that shitty "big boy's mario kart" ad and that's it, it was an utterly dreadful campaign and they need to stop kidding themselves otherwise.

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          June 23, 2011 9:19 AM

          Well just because it was terrible and didn't work doesn't mean they didn't invest a ton of resource and cash into it.

          I agree though it was word of mouth that made me try (and enjoy) Blur not their shitty marketing.

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            June 23, 2011 10:41 AM

            You mean they didn't know it was mario kart with real cars, when everybody knew? Shoulda known better.

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      June 23, 2011 1:57 PM

      that has to be the lamest excuse i have ever seen.
      "We just didn't think that was the best place for us to put our competitive energies. The racing genre had shrunk, pretty precipitously."

      the success of a genre is dependent on the interest, sure. but the interest is wholly dependent on the CONTENT. if the current content available in a genre totally blows, and thus loses interest, that is by no means a reason to give up on the genre. DO SOMETHING INOVATIVE! DO SOMETHING AMAZING! COME UP WITH AN ORIGINAL IDEA! hell, go talk to the guys trying to bring back carmageddon, and invest in that. invest some money, and manpower. that would make me happy. i would even go so far as to buy a copy for every one of my friends.

      yes, a racing game is not as liklely to sell as good as an FPS, but that is mainly because what racing fans have been getting is total crap, so you need to really convince them that you have something they want, and then you really need to deliver on that.

      "Unsurprisingly, the disappointing sales of Blur contributed to the closure as well."
      of course it was dissappointing. but that is not because the racing genre is dying. its because the game was dissappointing. the FPS genre is pretty much held alive by 2-3 franchises (CoD, Halo, GoW). its because of the success of these games and the fact that people like them that other FPS games sell. one game cannot satisfy forever, even if they release new ones, like CoD. those players will reach out and buy other games, if only to have a short change of pace. a crappy FPS will still get somewhat decent sales, simply because it is in that genre and FPSers will want to check it out. whereas in the racing genre, where there arent really any big names (at least on the level that FPS has), even an OK game is pretty much gonna tank.

      so dont drop the genre just cause games arent making it. MAKE them make it. or at least lay the blame where its due, on YOU, not the genre.

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        June 23, 2011 4:30 PM

        There were some interviews months ago with the founders of Bizarre, and they mentioned how getting taken over by Activision involved a sort of "assimilation" into their corporate culture, and a loss of independence and creativity.

        It's sad to think that the studio behind Metropolis Street Racer and PGR was only given real-world-car MarioKart with perks, and a James Bond game with setpiece driving and "detective vision". As noted earlier, Blur had pretty bad marketing (I was more aware of Split/Second with their gameplay videos), and its release got delayed into a bloodbath of similar games (Split/Second and ModNation Racers).

        This was while NASCAR: The Game 2011 was being developed by Eutechnyx. Activision's not in it for innovation; they're in it for high-volume-sales demographics. They could potentially fund a comprehensive multiplatform racing game, but they probably don't want to square off against Turn 10, Codemasters, and Polyphony Digital. This seems similar to them killing off True Crime, so they don't have to face off against Volition (Saints Row series) or Rockstar (GTA series).

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      June 23, 2011 5:11 PM

      Awww, I loved Blur. I thought it was fun.

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        June 23, 2011 5:30 PM

        The times I played Blur with shackers after it came out was awesome. 20 players all driving around ramming each other and having a good time was an absolute blast

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      June 23, 2011 5:22 PM

      Oh dear fucking god, I thought that said "Blizzard closure".

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      June 23, 2011 5:30 PM

      Repost:
      http://vimeo.com/20084659

      So poignant

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      June 23, 2011 5:52 PM

      I was looking forward to True Crime: Hong Kong : (

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      June 24, 2011 5:15 AM

      "What we couldn't afford to continue doing was putting out iterative improvements of the same idea because that idea had run out of gas in the marketplace."

      LOL.

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