Last Friday the creators of Geometry Wars, Blur, and Project Gothem Racing, Bizarre Creations was closed down by Activison. In a interview with Eurogamer, ex-Bizarre design manager Gareth Wilson gave his impressions on why the studio was shut down. He also gave a look back on his best times at the company.

“It was a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances,” “The landscape of the industry has changed massively even in the time from when Bizarre was acquired. In particular getting a new IP noticed at this stage of the console cycle combined with the global economic situation meaning gamers are less willing to ‘take a risk’ is really difficult.

“It’s not just Blur that didn’t sell in 2010, great new IPs like Enslaved, Alan Wake and Vanquish have struggled to make to make an impact while Halo and Call of Duty have broken sales records.”

The low sales of Blur many believe was the main reason for Activision’s attempt and eventual failure to find a buyer for the studio. Wilson commented on how the release date which was in the same time frame as Red Dead Redemption and Split/Second was a contributing factor to Blur’s disappointing sales.

“The release date probably didn’t help,” Wilson admitted, “but nowadays that ‘middle ground’ of two to three million sales is getting harder to find.  Games either ‘break out’ and sell four million plus, or really struggle to break even. Also the quality bar has risen enormously. Did you know there were more 80 per cent plus rated games in 2010 than any other year?”

The three months time Activision took to look for a buyer was time for the Bizarre employees to look for jobs. Thankfully Wilson was able to find a job over at Sumo Digital as chief games designer.

“As you’d expect I can’t confirm or deny anything about the projects on the go at Sumo right now, but what I can say is the games Sumo are working on are some of the most exciting projects in the industry and a big reason why I joined Sumo over other studios.”

When asked about what his favorite Bizarre Creations game was he responded:

“As a fan, the Killing Game Show way back in the day was a fantastic game that ate up most of my summer holidays!  As a project it was PGR3 without question.  We really felt we were pushing new boundaries all over the place with that game, whether it was the platform features like 360 Achievements or Trueskill matchmaking that we helped develop or game features like Gotham TV.

“Plus I’ll never forget the faces of you journos when we showed you the in car view for the first time on that massive HD screen!”

We wish all the former Bizarre Creations employees well. Below you can view the farewell video they made last Friday.