SighEx-Activision boss suggests buying Project Gotham Racing developer was a bad acquisition, and it's seemingly scarred him so badly he can't remember Bizarre Creations' nameIn the same chat, Bobby Kotick did manage to recall the name of Neversoft, because it can be interpreted as a gag about erections.Image credit: Kleiner Perkins News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Feb. 12, 2025 Former Activision Blizzard CEO has said that buying a UK-based studio known for making driving games on Xbox was "a bad acquisition", but wasn't able to remember the name of said studio. It seems likely he was talking about Project Gotham Racing and Blur developer Bizarre Creations.Speaking on the Grit Podcast of American venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, Kotick told an interviwer and former EA COO Bing Gordon that during his time at Activision, the company "actually had a bad acquisition".To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "The company that was, um in Manchester, that did the driving game for Xbox, and it was called, um" the former exec continued, seemingly struggling to recall the name of the studio in question. Assuming he meant Liverpool rather than Manchester, it'd appear Bizarre fits the bill here, given it's best known for developing Xbox exclusive series Project Gotham Racing."They had a good guy, who was running the day-to-day," Kotick recalled. "It was $80 million, and we wrote it off two years later," he added in respone to Gordon asking if this was a "bet the company acquisition", "Everything about it violated all our principles. That guy was an expensive lesson."Bizarre was acquired by Activision in September 2007, and closed in 2011, after efforts to find a buyer for it fell through. While under the Acti banner, it released the likes of Blur and James Bond 007: Blood Stone.The next bit of the podcast sees Kotick outline how Activision's strategy of acquiring studio's differed from EA's, with the latter choosing to "Electronic Arts-ify" new buys by ding things like changing their names to the likes of 'EA City Name', whereas Activision preferred to let them retain their original identities. He then did recall the name of another Activision studio - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater developer Neversoft - quipping "there was probably a decade where you couldn't have a company called Neversoft". He and Gordon then had a nice chuckle.Do you wish Bizarre Creations was still around, probably making good racing games? Let us know below.