Administration-hit games firm Realtime Worlds was given £200,000 in public funding to help recruit new staff just months before it collapsed into administration.
Scottish Enterprise awarded the Dundee company the Regional Selective Assistance cash late last year, to create 20 new jobs in support of the project APB (All Points Bulletin), and safeguard further posts.
The game was released at the end of June but failed to capture the public’s imagination and its poor performance has been singled out as the root cause of the company’s difficulties.
In total, 194 jobs have been lost in Realtime’s demise and a Scottish Enterprise spokeswoman said on Friday that the authority is in contact with the administrators to pursue the funds.
She said, “We can confirm that the company received a £200,000 Regional Selective Assistance grant in 2009. Officials have written to the administrators to seek recovery of the grant.”
Joint administrator Ken Pattullo said the body would be treated as an unsecured creditor during the administration process and it was “too early to predict” if the money would be returned to the public purse.
Meanwhile, a leading games industry figure and a local studio boss moved to quell fears the sector is built on uncertain economic foundations and said the financial rewards are there to reap.
As The Courier reported, the plight of Realtime Worlds was followed by an announcement that city firm Cohort Studios is paying off 27 staff as the games development sector goes through a “tough period.”
Dr Richard Wilson, chief executive of games industry trade association TIGA, said he believes Dundee has a strong future as a games development hub but said tax breaks are required to allow the whole UK industry to compete on a level playing field.
He said, “It is absolutely true that it is a risky industry.
“That is true of a lot of creative industry and it is also true of other sectors, like pharmaceuticals.”
He added, “A big investment has to be made but if it is successful the returns can be enormous, so it does make economic sense to carry on.”Realtime “very ambitious”Brian McNicoll, managing director of Springfield social games development firm Dynamo, said the Realtime experience is a bitter pill for the city to swallow.
However, he said the industry is not a house of cards ready to fall in on itself and Dundee still has plenty to offer.
His own company released the Soccer Tycoon game for Facebook users this week and he said several other local studios are also making a name for themselves on the world stage.
He said, “It has been unfortunate. The games industry is hit-driven and you do have to rely on an element of pick-up for your games.
“Realtime had a lot of problems with the game not having enough user demand when it was released and they maybe took a chance a little bit as maybe the market changed a little bit since they first conceived the idea.”
He added, “They were a very ambitious company and were great for the city of Dundee so hopefully they’ll pick up again.
“Things will go on, though, and the city will develop.”
Mr McNicoll said, “There will be more start-ups and I think the existing companies will continue to improve as they mature.
“We are growing every year and it is a great climate to be working in.””Successful” industry eventHe added, “It is a cheap city to live in and the local authority are a really good support to the digital media sector.
“If I talk to people in other places and tell them about all the support we get they cannot believe it.”
The competitive nature of the games industry was demonstrated during a two-day recruitment fair at the Apex Hotel, which was hastily arranged after Realtime’s troubles came to light.
Andy Campbell, of Specialmove, said the event attracted more than 250 people and gave hope to those caught up in the redundancies.
He said, “It has been a fantastically successful event.
“Activision headed up the event over the past two days and it was incredibly well attended by affected staff from the recent lay-offs at Cohort and Realtime Worlds, but also from a number of other people wanting to find out what was going on in the Activision family.”
He added, “We clocked nearly 250 attendees last night and were sorting through CVs till 2.30 this morning.
“We were back up at 7am and carried out over 45 interviews and of that there is some great potential for job offers to be made.”
Mr Campbell said, “From our point of view, it was an overwhelming success.”