Activision's Blur Slips To 2010

Activision is moving the release of Bizarre Creations' racing title Blur from this holiday season into 2010, the publisher announced today. The publisher joins several other publishers like Take-Two and Ubisoft in moving major titles out of the busy holiday season. Such shifts are not unusual as publishers organize themselves for year-end strategy, although companies often cite the need for more development time as the primary motivator. Activision, however, sheds a little extra insight on what Metropolis Street Racer and Project Gotham Racing creator Bizarre Creations will be working on between now and the unspecified 2010 launch -- specifically, it's the "innovative and distinctive" multiplayer that needs more polish, says the publisher. "We are committed to making Blur a great new racing franchise, and we are very encouraged by the game's design," said Activision Publishing president and CEO Mike Griffith. "The additional time will allow the studio to fully optimize the vision they set out to create for Blur including a distinctive and groundbreaking multiplayer mode that will appeal to a broad audience." Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian suggests that other factors play a role in the delay: "We also believe the delay likely contemplates the very competitive racing genre, the recent underwhelming start to sales of [rival Electronic Arts'] Need for Speed Shift, and the overall challenging industry sales trends."