Back in May 2010, Activision and developer Bizarre Creations released a fast paced, arcade vehicular shooter in the vein of Twisted Metal called Blur. The game was well received by most critics and fans alike, including here, but never hit the sales expected of the game. Former lead designer, Gareth Wilson has spoken out about why he believes the game failed to be a success.
Many of us will tell you that it is because of just how many racing games released so close to Blur, like Split/Second for an example, but Wilson, who is now with Sumo Digital, had a different take on the failure. Speaking to Edge, he had the following to say:
You need to reduce people’s fear of buying your product. Fear is a bigger driver for consumers than desire. They’re not going to buy something they haven’t tried before, because it might be crap.
Licensing is a good way to go, but you have to be careful because licensing costs money. You have to balance it. With Project Gotham Racing 3 we spent millions getting Ferrari but it worked. People saw that on the cover. But with Blur, the licensing maybe worked against us: real cars and weapons. Bacon with cornflakes.
Whatever the reason for the failure, it cost Bizarre Creations its studio as Activision was forced to shut them down last February.
