Bizarre Creations

Former employee of now defunct studio Bizarre Creations Matt Cavanagh has founded a new independent studio named Totem Games. Cavanagh was a lead designer on excellent racer Blur. "Totem Games is joining all the shiny new indie games companies in their mission to make the world a happier place," the studio announced via Twitter. Totem Games is the latest of a number of studios to be formed by ex-Bizarre employees which include Hogrocket and Lucid Games.

Speaking to Joystiq, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg breaks the firm's silence on the closure in February of Bizarre Creations - for some reason in the present tense. "The thing that Bizarre is best at and what they're known for and what their signature is is in the racing world," he said. "And the decision had as much to do with our assessment of what was happening to the racing genre as it had to do with anything specific to Bizarre. We just didn't think it was the best place for us to put our competitive energies. The racing genre had shrunk, pretty precipitously."