Wages boost for former Realtime Worlds employees
Former employees of Dundee games company Realtime Worlds have been given a boost with the news that their outstanding wages and holiday pay claims will be met in full.
- By Bruce Robbins
- Published in the Courier : 17.11.10
- Published online : 17.11.10 @ 08.41am
More than 200 people lost their jobs when the company went into administration three months ago and many were left chasing back pay.
However, joint administrators Ken Patullo and Paul Dounis revealed that they have sold the intellectual property rights to the company's online APB game to US-based GamersFirst.
That means that there is enough cash in the business to make good almost all the company's debts to its former workers.
Mr Dounis said, "We are obviously very happy to have concluded the sale, but at the same time very much regret the loss of jobs as a result of the closure of Realtime Worlds.
"As a consequence of the IPR asset sale, almost all outstanding wages and holiday pay claims will be met in full.
"GamersFirst is a pioneer in the free-to-play space — thus APB will be re-launched as a free-to-play model game rather than the previous retail model.
"People who previously bought the game can now look forward to playing it again once it's back online."
APB was developed in Dundee and launched as an online game. However, it was never the commercial success the company had hoped it would be and its failure to take off contributed to Realtime's demise.
GamersFirst chief executive Joshua Hong said APB would be an "important complement" to his company's main Free2Play third-party publishing business.
The game had some "exceptional features and some brilliant ideas" but suffered from some key flaws including problems generating income.
Mr Hong said, "We believe in putting our gamers first by encouraging the community to tell us what they like or dislike and then incorporate that feedback into our evolutionary development process.
"The core principle is to completely eliminate all economic barriers for gamers to experience our games."
Bjorn Book-Larsson, responsible for game development at GamersFirst, said the plan was to take APB's unique features, such as its character, weapon and car customisation systems, and convert it into a true, free-to-play game.
He added, "We are deep into the planning and early execution stages for this next chapter of APB and we will share more details in the near future."
A total of 217 people lost their jobs when Realtime collapsed, but 23 employees were re-engaged to run the MyWorld project which administrators Begbies Traynor saw as potentially valuable. MyWorld has since been sold to another US company.
10.58am - 17.11.2010 Tardie - Dundee, Scotland Report This
We look forward to receiving information and confirmation from Begbies Traynor as to when we will get all the wages owed to all the former staff including myself.<br /> Hot on the press releases, less on keeping former staff informed on any information regarding owed money!
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