Six weeks to rescue Realtime Worlds
Realtime Worlds will close its doors for good in six weeks if a buyer is not found for the Dundee video games firm.
- By Kieran Andrews
- Published in the Courier : 19.08.10
- Published online : 19.08.10 @ 06.52am
However, a senior figure at administrators Begbies Traynor claimed there is cause for optimism, with interested parties from both sides of the Atlantic looking at buying the company.
Paul Dounis also confirmed 157 people in Dundee have been made redundant from Realtime, which went into administration on Tuesday, with just 53 jobs kept in the city to run the game APB: All Points Bulletin.
The news came as anger mounted in the Scottish Government and across the city over the UK coalition government's decision to reverse plans for tax breaks for the games industry.
Enterprise minister Jim Mather said, "Scottish-based games developers must be allowed to compete on a level playing field through tax breaks. That is why it is particularly disappointing that the UK Government has so far failed to listen to the industry and the Scottish Government."
Mr Dounis, who said Realtime owes UK trade creditors around £3 million, added that 28 workers at the head office in Colorado have been paid off.
"We are actively pursuing all these expressions of interest which have come from both the UK and US," he said. "We very much regret the redundancies that we have had to make."
Staff attended a meeting at the firm's Marketgait offices yesterday to discuss the terms of their redundancy with representatives from Begbies Traynor.
One former worker told The Courier the administrators revealed the six-week deadline on selling the company that is in place, something Begbies Traynor confirmed last night.
Twitter messages from other employees said the company cannot pay them for completed work and it has changed all staff computer passwords so they can no longer log on.
It is also understood workers will not receive any redundancy cash and will have to apply to the government if they want to claim any compensation.
Some 60 staff working on a new project called My World were made redundant by Realtime Worlds on Friday.
Mr Dounis also confirmed the company is continuing to trade and said APB can still be played as the servers are still running.
"The game will continue and that is something we want all customers to be aware of," he added.
07.22am - 19.08.2010 John Wallace - Dundee, Scotland Report This
The bottom line is the APB game did not cut the mustard,its no point in blaming everyone. <br />write a better game,there have been hundreds of good games that have made companys millions so its a crying match when this game bombs Jobs losses are always a worry,but dont blame Dundee
07.57am - 19.08.2010 Dr J Stewart - Monifieth, Scotland Report This
Anger has not "mounted" anywhere on tax breaks. Mather, Swinney et al should no longer be approached for their views on these matters. Their input's not relevant to what's happening and there's not even any points left to score. Try canvassing other studios for their views on what did go wrong.
08.14am - 19.08.2010 Pygar - Dundee, Scotland Report This
It is indeed a terrible shame for the employees particularly and hopefully they will be snapped up. APB now looks like a grandiose folly. I can't believe the MMO subscription model wasn't spotted as too great a risk by RTW. Better to spent their time developing, for example iPhone apps
10.49pm - 20.08.2010 Rukii - Baton Rouge, United States Report This
Too bad, I actually really enjoyed this game. I would gladly pay a MMO sub for this game. Easily my favorite team game since Planetside. Who knew that the Counterstrike + GTA mix of gameplay would be so fun. Sure it needs work, and more importantly money, but this game deserves to be played.
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