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For many gamers the PGR franchise from Microsoft and Bizarre Creations has found the perfect balance between arcade thrills and more serious simulation handling. With Project Gotham Racing 4 due for release in the UK on October 12, racing fans should be celebrating, but instead there’s a distinct feeling that this will be the last time we get to play a new game in the series as we know it.
On September 26, ironically on the same day as Microsoft’s premier Halo franchise was selling to millions of gamers across the word, Activision announced that it had acquired Bizarre Creations and Bizarre announced that its days working on the PGR series were over. While FPS fans were wearing a smile from ear to ear, wannabe Lewis Hamiltons were in mourning.
“Why can’t Activision, Bizarre Creations and Microsoft all work together?” I hear you cry. It’s really quite simple. While independent developers (as Bizarre was before the acquisition) can be hired by anyone, a studio owned by a publisher will not create titles for another publisher to publish. With the PGR property now owned by Microsoft, which has already announced plans “to continue the series“, the only option is for a new development team to step into the fold.
Speaking about the PGR series a Bizarre Creations spokesperson summed up exactly why it was time to move on: “There always comes a time when you feel you’ve personally achieved as much as you can with a franchise, without letting the fans of the series down by doing yet another yourselves. This could be after 2 games, it could be after 10 – but in this case it was 4.” It seems quite clear that fans hoping Bizarre will create a similar game for Activision are going to be disappointed.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the PGR games going forward are going to change. Bizarre Creations is so closely tied to the franchise that a new developer taking over would be akin to Kojima Productions handing Metal Gear Solid 5 to a new team. Fans would no doubt be up in arms over such a move and the same is true here. But just what will change and who could potentially fill Bizarre’s multi-million selling shoes?
The most obvious and perhaps simplest solution would be for Microsoft to hire another independent studio to handle the series. With independent developers becoming rarer by the day though, it won’t be an easy task to find a suitable replacement. SEGA recently used FlatOut developer BugBear for the PSP version of SEGA Rally, racing game experts SimBin has created critically acclaimed titles for 10tacle and Eidos, and Sumo Digital has worked on numerous racing games for SEGA and Codemasters. While undeniably a more high profile project, all three seem more than capable.
Microsoft isn’t a stranger to setting up brand new development teams though, having done exactly that for the creation of Forza Motorsport. The Microsoft owned Turn 10 had one goal, to create a racing sim to rival Sony’s Gran Turismo, and two games later they’ve certainly succeeded. Given their track record, asking them to change racing styles seems like a recipe for disaster, but setting up a new studio (like SEGA’s SEGA Racing Studio that just completed work on the next-gen SEGA Rally) could work very well.
PGR4 brings new ideas to the series and is already being hailed as the best game of the bunch, but some new blood working on the franchise might not be a bad thing. The key is putting together a team that not only has the technical expertise of Bizarre but also the know how to create such a finely tuned driving model. It’ll be years before we see the fruit of whoever is given the job, but PGR fans will be waiting and hoping that the series’ trademark style and flair won’t be consigned to the annals of video game history.
What do you think is going to happen to the PGR series? Let is know in the comments section below.
