Bizarre stands to make $40m if Blur is a hit

by David Hinkle { Jul 20th 2009 at 10:45AM }

If you doubt the potential for success with Blur, the first racing game under the protective wing of new mother bird Activision, then you don't know how popular Bizarre's Project Gotham Racing franchise has been. We didn't either, to tell the truth, until Bizarre's Chris Pickford revealed to Develop that the franchise has sold over seven million.

This is the kind of runaway success Activision is looking for in Blur, as Bizarre could make $40 million should the game meet projected sales by 2012/13. While we don't know what the target sales are, Blur will have close to three years to reach the goal set by Activision when it releases later this year, so we'd say something around the four million mark is definitely not out of the question.

Tags: activision, bizarre, bizarre-creations, blur, project-gotham-racing, racing

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

XBL: Burritoclock PSN:Herbie Hat @ Jul 20th 2009 10:48AM

I know it's off topic, but did anyone else get the fuel demo?

It sucked, HARD.

Mimglow @ Jul 20th 2009 10:50AM

Couldn't agree more. Played one race. One too many as it turned out.

epicmuffin @ Jul 20th 2009 10:58AM

The FUEL demo was really lame. I love Codemasters racing games, so it was a little surprising how much they missed the mark with that one.

This, on the other hand, looks like it'll be fun. Kind of reminds me of the game Rumble Racing, which I thought was a pretty entertaining game.

XBL: Burritoclock PSN:Herbie Hat @ Jul 20th 2009 11:14AM

I was kinda excited about it too, being codemasters and all, but everything about that demo was so bland, and... well just crap on every level.

Anyway, I was just curious if it was just me.

drakkor @ Jul 20th 2009 11:48AM

codemasters just published it, they didnt develop it

it was a big disappointment though

Neuromancer @ Jul 20th 2009 11:48AM

It looked like cat had vomited on my TV.

XBL: Burritoclock PSN:Herbie Hat @ Jul 20th 2009 12:06PM

True they published it, but usually a company would try not to dilute their brand by sticking their name on a turd.

BlackDove @ Jul 20th 2009 10:50AM

Then it's such a shame nobody is really going to buy Blur, because there's a racing game being released every ten minutes.

JXCgunrunna @ Jul 20th 2009 10:58AM

there is a shooting games released almost every week and guess what? the good/hyped/well marketed ones will sell millions. It doesnt matter how many there are, just how good the game is.

Vidikron @ Jul 20th 2009 11:03AM

If the game is good I'll buy it. I don't buy many racing games, but PGR was one of the series I did buy.

potato @ Jul 20th 2009 3:00PM

Plenty of people bought Burnout Paradise. If you bring something new to the table in this market full of lackluster Need For Speed titles, you can do well.

I like how Activision is giving Bizarre 3 years to reach the goal - maybe we will see some real post-release support for the game (free DLC anyone?). We need to see more deals structured this way.

NOOK @ Jul 20th 2009 4:26PM

What? Where? I'm still playing FM2 and PGR4 because everything after that was pure crap. MC:LA was kinda entertaining but got boring pretty fast and GRID at least looked good while the gameplay sucked big time. I really wish Bizarre would've done another PGR-like racer and not Mario Kart for BMW-cocks.

Oh, I completely forgot about that "preordered-played-returned-after-a-day"-Race Pro piece of ... you know.

cuteSAVAGE @ Jul 20th 2009 10:54AM

No only will Bizarre make $40m US, but they'll also make Blur 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on and so forth if the game even makes a smudge on the charts.

Huey2k2 @ Jul 20th 2009 10:56AM

I am excited for this.

Arcade racing games are better than sim racing games as far as I am concerned.

xbox420king @ Jul 20th 2009 3:10PM

I agree 100 percent.

NOOK @ Jul 20th 2009 4:28PM

I disagree 101 percent. I win.

Akuma FTW @ Jul 20th 2009 10:58AM

I think they are over-estimating Bizarre's brand recognition. They are big with Joystiq readers, people in the know maybe, but your average joe will just see a new racing game and not buy in. I loved PGR but without that name I dont see them moving those kinds of #s

Paul @ Jul 20th 2009 11:04AM

blur 37 confirmed! YAY activision!

MasterGekk @ Jul 22nd 2009 3:27PM

I'm not gonna buy this game because I'm jealous and don't want them to make $40 Mil.

Muhammad-Oli @ Jul 20th 2009 11:09AM

Hmm, this looked awful in the previews I saw. It looked like a poor man's Midnight Club on PS2, but on a current gen console. I don't think it will sell very well unless they put in a huge ad campaign, but they have the upcoming (and great looking) Split/Second to compete with, along with the established Burnout/Need For Speed/Midnight Club franchises.

Project Gotham may have been popular, but hardly any consumers buy a game by developer; they buy by content and by name. Blur as a new start-up franchise has a lot of work to do to compete because it doesn't have a recognisable name. There's also the fact that Project Gotham was an XBox exclusive, but this is hitting both high-def consoles so they if they plan to stick "from the developers of Project Gotham" on the case, they better hope PS3 owners have at least some knowledge of the rival console.

GordoJones @ Jul 20th 2009 3:41PM

I'm not sure why this was so down voted. A lot of E3 attendees said the graphics engine for Blur looked like a last gen title, some were completely baffled by how poor it looked. Bizarre was not allowed to use the PGR engine, so they had to start from scratch.

I am a huge fan of PGR, and PGR4 was a perfectly polished massively fantastic game I still play. I'm afraid even if Blur turns out to be good, it simply isn't going to sell well with Forza 3, Gran Turismo 5, Need for Speed: Shift, and DiRT 2 on the shelves along side it.

Muhammad-Oli @ Jul 21st 2009 8:46AM

I don't think Joystiq readers know common sense when they read it. Fanboys run rampant here.

MystileArmor @ Jul 20th 2009 11:10AM

I always liked Oasis more then Blur...

drakkor @ Jul 20th 2009 12:13PM

i see what you did there...

i like the idea of split/second over blur

cuteSAVAGE @ Jul 20th 2009 12:46PM

Blur is such a me-too act. The Stone Roses ftw.

MystileArmor @ Jul 20th 2009 2:40PM

All hail the monkey man!

Snake Robot Podium @ Jul 20th 2009 11:15AM

Lemme get this straight, are you reporting that if a game sells well, the company that created the game will make money?

david @ Jul 20th 2009 1:10PM

Thank you for some common sense. Who would think, these days, that a company who sells a product would make money?!?!?!?!?!?!?

ToadStoolPorridge @ Jul 20th 2009 4:00PM

That's exactly what I was going to post. I bet it could stand to sell $50 million if it gets great reviews and more people buy it! Maybe it could only make $30 million if it gets mediocre reviews and it's line on a graph sits below the one they were hoping for!

ToadStoolPorridge @ Jul 20th 2009 4:01PM

I know, right? I never knew a company could make money off a game if it sells like another game that they made? Hooray for projections and graphs!

SoulBlade @ Jul 20th 2009 11:17AM

and if it doesn't meet the sales mark, blame used game sales!

arrrgh @ Jul 20th 2009 3:08PM

and piracy

Neuromancer @ Jul 20th 2009 11:50AM

Sorry but Split/Second looks so much more interesting than this.

FreshJulius @ Jul 20th 2009 11:53AM

Due to the inevitable price drops by 2012/13, I think they could just subsidize 1-1.5million copies or so once they start getting close to the deadline if need be and they'd still make bank off the $40 million bonus.

WINterfang @ Jul 20th 2009 12:57PM

Racing Hero for the win.

KillaRizzay @ Jul 20th 2009 2:31PM

As someone said, coming from the developers of Project Gothem Racing, means squat to us Playstation goers. We were raised on Gran Turismo so that alone may hurt Blur. Above that, there's all the other established franchise and split second which looks cool too.

In my opinion, finding out that it was made from the same people as PGR is actually a deal breaker for me. As I mentioned, I've grown up on Gran Turismo and Need for Speed and never dug PGR. That said, I doubt I'll be grabbing this game.

tcc3 @ Jul 20th 2009 3:10PM

Why would you even compare a sim to an arcade racer?

Because you're a troll.

arrrgh @ Jul 20th 2009 3:11PM

you're missing out big time.

pgr 4 was amazing.

Snowblind @ Jul 20th 2009 2:31PM

PGR had the perfect balance of simulation and arcade, I think that's probably why it was so popular.. It's one of the few racing games, but still I doubt I'll be getting this with everything else coming out this year.

I've also boycotted Activision for their UK Modern Warfare prices.

NOOK @ Jul 20th 2009 4:37PM

Why would you do that? You Brits always get your games A LOT cheaper than Germany. Hell, the last game I actually bought in my own country was FM2. After that, I imported everything from your friendly people.

Example? GoW 2. I paid 17,99 quid for the Limited Edition about a month ago. I would've paid 89,99 € here but I would have had to drive some 20 km to the Netherlands because in Germany, you can't buy those games legally at all.

Snowblind @ Jul 20th 2009 6:13PM

Well I'm sorry for you Germans, but charging us an extra £15 for a game, just because they know it'll sell anyway is just unacceptable.

NOOK @ Jul 20th 2009 6:52PM

You're actually right. Well, if you mean they're charging you 15 US$ more. MW2 is 45 quid at amazon.co.uk, which equals 75 US$ while the americans pay 60 US$.

Still, you wanna know how much we pay? I didn't realize HOW much that is until I just checked that. 69 €, which equals 98 US$ o.O

But, as far as I know, prices in the UK and Germany do already include taxes while prices on amazon.com don't. Correct me if I'm wrong.

tcc3 @ Jul 20th 2009 3:12PM

Name recognition is a double edged sword. A lot of people are going to remember Bizarre for PGRs3 and 4. I dont know how many will hearken back to the days on PGR2 and give them a third chance.

KillaRizzay @ Jul 20th 2009 3:58PM

So you ask why did I compare? And then in your own post, sum up what I've been saying (which was to people who liked PGR, blur may appeal, but to those who didnt like PGR, probably wont)

You sir, an idiot.

And to answer your question, I was comparing main genre's. People do it all the time comparing madden to Blitz, Tekken to UFC (i had a convo about that this weekend), etc. And from what I remember (and reconfirmed by other's comments) PGR was somewhat of an in between, not full arcade but not full sim. Gran Turismo has always had an arcade mode which felt similar, and need for speed has always been that way too.

GordoJones @ Jul 20th 2009 3:57PM

So who the hell is going to make Geometry Wars 3 !?!

I ****ing love Geometry Wars 2 !

False @ Jul 20th 2009 4:48PM

Hmm...they're got three years to reach their sales goal, but is that realistic considering they'll probably have a sequel out within the first two years?

tcc3 @ Jul 20th 2009 5:17PM

Actually that wasn't my point at all. Bizarre used to have a lot of street cred, but after PGR3, not so much. My point had nothing to do with relative recognition outside of the xbox community.

You're still a troll for comparing every game with wheels to GT. Its a different sub genre that serves a different purpose. Forza is a more apt comparison.