New Reports are suggests that Activision has shut down at least two of its studios this morning: Geometry Wars creator Bizarre Creations and Blast Works developer Budcat. While official word on Bizarre’s closure has not yet come, several Twitter posts point to the studio being shut down today, with its entire staff of 200+ employees let go.
Bizarre Creations are best known not for their recent James Bond title, but for their huge line-up of racing games, including the popular Project Gotham Racing series, a number of Formula One games, and a handful of Geometry Wars spin-offs. For the last few years, Budcat Creations has mostly worked on console specific builds (usually on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii) of the dwindling Guitar Hero franchise.
PC Gamer reports that Budcat employees found security guards waiting for them when they arrived at work today. Then, “cheerful” consultants told them that they were all being fired. It’s sort of like a scene from Up in the Air, except with uglier consultants. Budcat was founded by two ex-EA Tiburon employees in 2000. The first game bearing their name was Madden NFL 2002, which they developed the PSOne, N64, GBA ports for. They were purchased by 2008 and since then were in charge of PS2 ports for Guitar Hero titles. It seems we’ve finally hit the point when Activision feels these ports aren’t worth it.
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