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Activision: We Can Lead the Racing Genre

Kris Graft's picture

By Kris Graft

September 15, 2008

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"We're convinced we have the opportunity to capture leadership in this genre."

With Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, Forza, Dirt and other high-profile racing games, one would think the genre is overcrowded.

But contrarily, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith called the genre "under-penetrated," and expressed his confidence in studio Bizarre Creations' next title, described as a "racing category killer."

"We're convinced we have the opportunity to capture leadership in this genre," he said during the company's analyst day.

"We've tested extensively our position and our game design, and results have reinforced our hypothesis. Consumers respond extremely well to our racing concept, with significantly stronger results ... than external competition."

Activision acquired Project Gotham developer Bizarre Creations in 2007. The U.K.-based studio's work has been generally highly regarded among gamers and a strong sales performer.

He also claimed that there is plenty of global opportunity for the game, particularly in Europe, which has a strong racing fanbase. Griffith said Europe made up 58 percent of the total racing category in 2007.

Griffith explained the criteria that Activision follows when establishing a new franchise.

"We start with five basic questions that we've got to answer affirmatively to justify moving forward: Is the genre large with an acceptable barrier to entry? Do we have something unique and compelling to offer? Is the opportunity annualize-able? Do we have the right developer to deliver game quality? And finally, can we expect a strong return on investment?"

He added, "We knew with Bizarre Creations, we had the perfect partner for the game we had to make in this space."

The game is slated for calendar 2009.

Mystakill's picture
On September 19th Mystakill said:

I hope that Bizarre develops something other than yet another iteration on PGR. I've found PGR somewhat stale over the last couple of iterations. Burnout & NFS (Most Wanted, anyway, not Underground) both seem more "alive", compared to PGR's empty environments with fixed spectators who don't even cringe when a vehicle crashes into the wall right in front of them. Even Forza's got a better formula, although their menu system needs a major rewrite (it works, but it's cumbersome & bland).

Based on sales though, it's pretty clear that all of these are selling very well. Activision's starting to become a bit like EA, in that it wants to pump out annual updates of their top sellers with a few updates here & there, but without many major changes.

On a similar tack, do we *really* need artist-specific versions of Guitar Hero when a revamped, in-game store with lower prices will drive sales up more significantly than having to shell out $60 for yet another iteration of GH?

NickgamertagO1's picture
On September 19th NickgamertagO1 said:

I think that racing/driving games need to evolve from simple do this race, move on to this race, then do this one while jumping from menu to menu. I think there will always be a place for the Forzas and GTs, but for non simulation fans, I think Test Drive Unlimited (a hugely underrated game IMO) and Burnout Paradise got it right with the open world environment (yes Midnight club in a way as well). What Test Drive Unlimited did was turn it into an MMORPG racing game. As long as you were online you'd see other people who were online in your area driving around, you could go crash into them, race them (and you would set the racing start and end points with your map, you could make the race as long or as short as you wanted making for an unlimted amount of "tracks" It had some racing game style RPG elements, on open world accessible a real time map (mapped after a GPSed real world Oahu Island) similar to how Oblivion's map was. You could fast travel to an area you had previously been to, set map markers. It was an open world you can access the entire island. It'd take about 1.5 hours to drive around the entire island, and there were never load times. The driving mechanics and physics could have used some tweaking, but it was do-able. I want games more like that, instead of just here's 57 races over 9 different tracks, do 3 laps on all of them...GO!!! It gets boring, to me any way. And the game was only $40 brand new...

Paul_H's picture
On September 16th Paul_H said:

Burnout was on the PS2 first, and published by Acclaim.

I for one will be ecstatic if Bizzares next racing game is an evolution of PGR, while I really liked the Burnout series (esp 2 & 3) I think the amount of time I put into PGR (particularly 2) trumps it.

Horses for courses I guess ...

BTS.WRKNG's picture
On September 16th BTS.WRKNG said:

Your subhead list omits the current king of the arcade racing hill: BURNOUT. Burnout has been at the front of the arcade-style racing pack since its debut on the GameCube (hmmm, wasn't that published by Activision, too?).

There hasn't been a decent Need for Speed since Hot Pursuit PSX; that series has coasted along largely on inertia, marketing, gimmickry--everything BESIDES the driving engine itself. I think it might be a mistake to lump the hardcore simulations in with the arcade-style racers and I would be surprised if Bizarre aims to unseat GT or Forza with whatever they're brewing up. Interestingly, another notable omission from your list may be the one that shows the most promise: Grid.

There's certainly an opportunity for Bizarre in that Burnout Paradise is a noble but ultimately failed experiment. Whatever they and Activision deliver, though, will need to be quite a bit better than PGR: that series in its various incarnations has never been enough to tear me or many others away from Takedown, Revenge, et. al. Having been disappointed with Paradise, however, I wish them the best.

Just $0.02 worth of input from a self-described arcade-style racing connoisseur. I'd like to hear others' opinions!