I've always had the feeling that Turn 10 benefitted a lot from working together with Bizarre Creations and benefitting from the stuff they brought to the Microsoft table. It could really hurt them not to have PGR around.
However, I do feel that Bizarre Creations made the right decision here. They'll soon have two PGRs out on the 360, and the 360 is out on the market barely two years. Besides that, there have been 4 of them out now, and I can very much imagine that they'll want to do something new.
Let's hope they make the kind of progression that we've seen from Guitar Hero to Rock Star.
Multiplaform is good too. It will be interesting to see in which direction they will head. Wii, PS3, PC? All of them? If you'd ask me at this point where I thought the biggest market was going to be by the time they'd have their game ready, I have really and honestly no idea whatsoever. I think they'll go for PS3/360/PC multiplatform first, because that's where the racing fans hang out most, I think.
I also would imagine that purely from a tech-head point of view, they could be very much interested in working on the PS3, just because they know the 360 so well and it's always interesting to see how far you can push a completely different platform and how you measure up against the first party teams of other platforms. Forces you to grow and rethink certain things, get a more 'meta' perspective, etc.
Well, we'll see. I'm sure we'll hear more about this soon.
Yes, I do think this is a loss for Microsoft. PGR has been one of the very few franchises that have drawn me to the Xbox (though their track-design hasn't always been the best, imho). And although now it looks like I'm going to end up getting a 360 this week because I got a lucky offer (a colleague of mine won one and doesn't want it, and is selling it for half price, unopened), so I end up being able to play their game, I'm still happy that they are going multi-platform, even if it is only because then I'll be able to play their games with decent wheels finally.
My only worry is that they might not have as much time to take their other platforms to the technological depths that they have been able to take their previous games when they were single platform. But they are entering the multi-platform market when the biggest edge has been taken off, I think, the most expensive and dangerous technological expeditions have been undertaken and the maps have been charted pretty well.
I wish them all the best! It sounds like they got a good deal with Activision and I hope they get to make the best out of it.