More quotes, this time from Martyn Chudley, Bizarre, on reasons for moving from second to third party.

EDGE
A long-lived, successful and prominent independent developer with a strong relationship with Microsoft, Bizarre Creations' sale to Activision was a surprise to most onlookers. But from the inside, Bizarre wasn't so comfortable. "I think that PGR4 was the strongest Gotham game we did," says Chudley. "But towards the end of that project they wanted us to bring it in early, to chop six weeks off development." But the way Bizarre works is "really right up to the wire," so the game would be nowhere near finished. He had to insist that his team worked to the terms of the contract. "That got us concerned about the future with Microsoft." But even before this he had misgivings. He feels that PGR undersold because it was a launch game for Xbox, PGR2 undersold because Microsoft used it to sell Xbox Live, PGR3 undersold because it was a launch game for 360 and because Bizarre received final hardware only six months before release, and PGR4 undersold because Microsoft concentrated instead on marketing Forza 2.

On aquisition by Activision under its independent studio model, which gives Bizarre a broad degree of freedom, it was the third biggest publisher in the world, but a couple of months later the Activision-Blizzard merger went ahead and it became the largest. "We went from being the only racing studio for the world's third biggest publisher to the only racing studio in the world's biggest publisher. We've the full weight of this monstrosity above us, which has good and bad connotations - the greater the expectation, the greater the pressure, and the exposure."

I am quoting this from another forum, no point in posting a link there as this is the entirety of the text and there was no link provided for the source.

Now we can add another name to the list of developers who have been shut down or spoken ill of Microsofts developer relations.

• Ensemble
• FASA
• Aces

All shut down.

• Bizarre.
• Bungie

All driven away.

Seriously this is getting stupid! EA is getting some competition as worst publisherdeveloper relations ever.

FFS Microsoft!

Sounds like Microsoft is extremely controlling.

Well no source yet from the other forum but I'd believe it.

well, that sucks indeed, but:

PGR2 undersold because Microsoft used it to sell Xbox Live

doesn't make sense to me, shouldn't it have helped the sales of the game? :o

It makes me wonder if they will ever get their head together... Sigh!

Sounds like bullshit.

if they sighed a contract saying it would be done at a certain time they should stick to it - hence the definition of the word contract

You can't include Epic in that last list. Epic has many publishers for their games. MS is only gears

If you mean what I think you mean, heres the important quote.

""But towards the end of that project they wanted us to bring it in early, to chop six weeks off development." But the way Bizarre works is "really right up to the wire," so the game would be nowhere near finished. He had to insist that his team worked to the terms of the contract."

True.