Activision has issued a recommendation to Bizarre Creation to shut down, following their inability to find a buyer for the studio. The studio has accepted the proposal of their parent company to close down. The Liverpool-based studio has made games like Project Gotham Racing and Blur in the past.

Coddy Johnson, Activision Worldwide Studios’ chief operating officer, said that the company had “looked at all options” before recommending to close the group.

“I want to be clear, our first choice was to try and keep this group together and find a buyer for the studio,” he told Develop. “This decision comes after a few months of exhausted examination of a number of different options across the board.”

“We of course care about this team. We’re offering the studio as many resources as possible, including counseling, external placement services and external career fairs,” he added.

This marks the closure of another talented studio. Sad day.

A user over at NeoGaf  forum called KennyLender has posted that Activision has shut down their studio, Bizarre Creations who made games like James Bond: Bloodstone and and many notable racing games in the past.

All 200 employees have been laid off according to the report.

We wish all those affected the best of luck and hope that they can recover from these terrible times.

Update: It looks like this sad news is indeed true.

Industry people have started tweeting that Bizarre Creations have actually been put on notice and is shutting down.

@FreakyZoid

Sounds like bad times at Bizarre Creations. After all the good games, one average Bond and you’re done 🙁 Good luck to any affected.

Tonka Thompson

Major rumblings that Bizzare have been put on notice and the studio is closing.