Bizarre Recounts Strained Relationship With Microsoft

Talking recently to Edge as part of a wider feature on new racer Blur, Bizarre Creations’ creative director Martyn Chudley recounted the company’s increasingly strained relationship with Project Gotham Racing publisher Microsoft prior to the studio being acquired by Activision.

“I’m not going to slag [Microsoft] off in an evil way, but obviously we worked on PGR4 for them, and I think that PGR4 was the strongest Gotham game we did – the most fully rounded. But towards the end of that project they wanted us to bring it in early, to chop six weeks off development. But the way we work is really right up to the wire, so basically the game is nowhere near finished at six weeks to go, so we had to dig our heels in and say that our contract said that we’re to bring the game in on this day, and that’s what we were going to do because we cannot compromise the work that the lads have been doing, and the quality of the game,” Chudley said.

“They didn’t realise how bad a situation it would have been – we needed that extra six weeks, and it got us concerned with the future with Microsoft… We were getting disillusioned with Microsoft and they were getting corporate and cocky as well because of the shift in power between them and Sony.”

According to Chudley, Microsoft’s main focus was always on its first party developer Turn 10 Studios, the team behind the Forza Motorspot series.

“And that was at the expense of us,” he said. “They brought out the Forza [Xbox 360 console] bundle. And that was disappointing, because the guys worked so hard on [PGR4]. It just didn’t get the exposure and the marketing – it got the critical acclaim, but wasn’t as commercially successful as the other projects... Microsoft always had – I’m painting a bad picture; we had a really good relationship right up to the very end – but they always had other agendas, which were primarily about selling Xbox.”

Shame this happened as the PGR series always delivered for me

Microsoft were getting corporate and cocky as well because of the shift in power between them and Sony.”

Thor wrote:PGR4 is easily one of my most loved and played game of this generation, didn't realise it didn't quite sell as well as it should have. Is Blur out this year?

"I’m painting a bad picture; we had a really good relationship right up to the very end – but they always had other agendas, which were primarily about selling Xbox.”

suzzopher wrote:

Thor wrote:PGR4 is easily one of my most loved and played game of this generation, didn't realise it didn't quite sell as well as it should have. Is Blur out this year?

Hopefully Blur will be out this year. I am so excited about it, after the Edge feature on it.

abcd wrote:I really don't like the look of blur.

I just don't fancy the whole power ups option. I prefer racing cars.

The first major problem was Microsoft. I want to be clear that in hindsight, we believe Microsoft were absolutely correct in the calls they made, and we were wrong. But at the time, oh my god they were pissing us off. We’d done a massive treatment of the in-game menus for Darwinia and Multiwinia, and the end result is exactly what you see in the PC/Mac versions of Multiwinia now. We were very happy with that and considered the game ready to go through their certification process, but Microsoft did not agree. They requested we go into an extensive period of redesign and polish on the game, covering everything from the menus to the squaddie control method in Darwinia, to the game modes in Multiwinia. It was the first time a massive company had effectively told Introversion what to do, and we didn’t like that at all. It was also months of work, and the concept of open-ended polish and iteration with a company several orders of magnitude larger than our own didn’t hugely appeal. We finally resolved this situation in the only way we could – we separated the PC and Xbox versions of the game, pushed ahead with a PC only version of Multiwinia, and put the Xbox project on a back burner.

http://forums.introversion.co.uk/introversion/viewtopic.php?t=2012

satriales wrote:I've heard a couple of other developers recently saying that had trouble working with Microsoft. Introversion is one but I can't remember who the other one was.

The first major problem was Microsoft. I want to be clear that in hindsight, we believe Microsoft were absolutely correct in the calls they made, and we were wrong. .....

Skullfire wrote:

satriales wrote:I've heard a couple of other developers recently saying that had trouble working with Microsoft. Introversion is one but I can't remember who the other one was.

The first major problem was Microsoft. I want to be clear that in hindsight, we believe Microsoft were absolutely correct in the calls they made, and we were wrong. .....

Says it all, I think.

satriales wrote:

Skullfire wrote:

satriales wrote:I've heard a couple of other developers recently saying that had trouble working with Microsoft. Introversion is one but I can't remember who the other one was.

The first major problem was Microsoft. I want to be clear that in hindsight, we believe Microsoft were absolutely correct in the calls they made, and we were wrong. .....

Says it all, I think.

I dunno, they almost went bankrupt because they didn't release a game last year and they aren't going to be too critical of microsoft while they still want to release their game on the 360.

Rik wrote:It was all the fault of SEGA with MSR and MS with PGR, watch out Activision your next.

MCN wrote:

Rik wrote:It was all the fault of SEGA with MSR and MS with PGR, watch out Activision your next.

We can only hope that their next series doesn't end with an R.