Bizarre Creations and Microsoft Game Studios' Project Gotham Racing 4

You want to get Capone? Here's how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way. And that's how you get Capone. Now, do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that?
--Jim Malone to Elliott Ness in "The Untouchables"

Having just gotten word that U.K. developer Bizarre Creations has been acquired by Activision, we immediately asked ourselves, who wins and who loses? For the two companies involved, it's obviously a good marriage. Like Katharine Hepburn's oft-cited quote about the mutually beneficial relationship of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers--"Fred gave Ginger class, and Ginger gave Fred sex"--Bizarre gives Activision instant credibility in racing games, a genre where the Santa Monica-based company has been more or less absent (class), and Bizarre gets access to Activision's deep pockets, rather than continue the hand to mouth existence that plagues many independent developers (sex.)

For Bizarre's current publishing partners--Microsoft (Project Gotham Racing 4), Sega (The Club), Sierra (Geometry Wars Galaxies) and Electronic Arts (Boom Boom Rocket)--the impact is less clear. Bizarre has stated that it will finish and support those projects that began under its previous deals, so no-one will be left holding the bag. We doubt that Microsoft will continue the Project Gotham Racing series without Bizarre, given how under-marketed PGR4 has been. It's also worth noting that the franchise was greenlit before the original Xbox launched, back when Microsoft couldn't be assured of widespread third-party support. With third party support no longer in question, Microsoft Game Studios may well choose to either double down on Forza or put its eggs in another basket. With regards to Sega and Sierra, we'll have to wait until the smoke clears to offer any informed speculation on that.

The case of Electronic Arts, however, is considerably more interesting.

1. EGO...trip: scold us, diss us, love us
2. MIT..pranks Harvard using Master Chief
3. UMM...This name is just asking for trouble
4. SAD...Anti-game gadfly shoots self in foot
5. FCC...outs the Rock Band wireless guitar
6. RND...Why Nintendo was right after all