In late September Activision announced that it had acquired Project Gotham Racing developer Bizarre Creations as part of its "ongoing strategy to enter new genres" following last year's purchase of RedOctane (Guitar Hero). Although Microsoft retains the rights to the critically and commercially successful PGR series, the acquisition of Bizarre was certainly a negative for the company.

At the time of the acquisition a Microsoft spokesperson told us "Project Gotham Racing is a signature racing franchise for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live and we plan to continue the series," but the company gave no further details. Now, however, according to Microsoft Game Studios' general manager in the U.K., Phil Spencer, it appears that Turn 10, developer of the more realistic Forza Motorsport racing franchise, could take the reigns (steering wheel?) for the PGR franchise if needed.

"We don't have any clear set answer for how PGR5 might come to market yet, but we're looking at a lot of different alternatives right now. Obviously [Forza creators and internal MGS studio] Turn 10 is a strong team, and they're really focused on Forza and it's doing well so I wouldn't want to distract them, but it is an option," Spencer admitted in an interview with Develop.

He added, "And of course there are some great independent racing studios we are going to talk to as well. We have a real place for PGR in our portfolio, and we know what it means relative to Forza, and some of the third party alternatives are not comparable."