Despite all of the rumors and hope that developer Bizarre Creations would somehow be rescued, none of those rumors have materialized and the developer will be closed on Friday, February 18th. While Activision has been undergoing a lot of restructuring with studios, the folks at Bizarre appear to have fallen victim to Activision’s inability to find an audience for Bizarre’s last two releases.

Even though Blur and James Bond Blood Stone didn’t sell as well as Activision had hoped, the bigger loss is for this studio deep rooted with tradition within the industry that many have described as a family run business. While Blur met with success as far as reviewers went, the title just never found the commercial success that the game deserved, in our opinion.

While many would have liked to have seen Microsoft throw the studio a life line and fund the studio to develop Project Gotham Racing 5, whispers suggest that at least some talks were held but it never really amounted to much. This is sad, because it will be hard to believe that the next evolution of PGR, if it happens, will not have the team at Bizarre behind it.

Those we have spoken with tell us that perhaps a lot of the reason that the studio didn’t find a buyer is due to rival studios in the area cherry picking the talent off the Bizarre roster without having to purchase the entire studio, which apparently is the case. Many have already found employment with other developers in the area. Those that have not found employment yet are apparently at least getting some assistance from Activision to help with their job search.

We hate to see Bizarre Creations close, as we looked to them as one of the best racing game developers for years and they will be missed. We wish those at Bizarre well and hope that they all make a successful transition to new employment soon.