Angry-gamer.net (found via Kotaku AU) has reported the rumour that Auran is facing financial difficulties and has begun shedding many staff members yesterday afternoon, with more to come today. It's believed that the company had banked heavily on Fury's success, but the claim is that Fury has met with disappointing sales. From Angry Gamer...
(Auran)... has told its staff to look for other jobs and that they cannot guarantee employment past this week.
This news comes only a few weeks after the release of their PC "PVP MMO", Fury, and Battlestar Galactica on Xbox LIVE Arcade. "Fury was a financial disaster, it lost Auran a lot of money", one anonymous source told Angry Gamer.Angry-gamer.net adds that the QA staff was the worst hit, and that Melbourne developer Tantalus has picked up 20 of Auran's staff with interviews commencing next week.
In anycase, if the rumour turns out true, it's a massive shame on a great scale for the veteran Brisbane developers and their "break through" title. One wonders if there's some Unreal Engine curse for local game developers, with Irrational Game's Unreal powered Tribes: Vengeance only managing a disappointing 47,000 units of sales in North America, and the blame for Perception and their troubles with Stargate SG1: The Alliance reportedly laid with the engine...
1. farmergnome Fri, 7 Dec
yay for my job! Ah, well this sucks, throws the morgage in the grinder eh.
Ouch - this really sucks
Yeah. So what if a few people get laid off. At least they made an original IP
Yeah because releasing some awful IP is far more important than real people's lives.
Yeah who actually needs a job.
To the people at Auran, best of luck. I hope things shake out alright for you.
Unlucky guys, but things will work out. I lost my job in the ratbag shutdown a couple of years ago. Get your resumes out there, those of you who still want to work in this industry should not have any issues getting a new position elsewhere very soon.
I wish that was true. I think we're heading into uncertain times again.
I feel for you guys, I've been through this situation far too many times.
*Big hugs for all, especially for the familes that settled down.*
yo chiggen what are you up to these day's
"and the blame for Perception and their troubles with Stargate SG1: The Alliance reportedly laid with the engine."
Yes, if by "engine" you actually mean "Ben Lenzo"...
Sucks. but like someone said, the auran guys and gals should have no problem finding work at other studios around town. best of luck
Bad luck, i really feel sorry for them, but to be frank who didn't see this as coming? Licencing a very very expensive engine to fund an MMO?! To even attempt to break into the MMO market right now is utter stupidity. There is simply no way you'll be taking a significant slice of the WoW pie. I'm sick of seeing so many good devs wasting their time, money and talent into such a useless endeavor when they could be doing something actually worth a damn.
they should never have called it an MMO. it's as MMO as Battlefield 2 is. only difference being a 3D lobby instead of a menu-based one
Bummer, what I don't understand is why 20 people went straight for Tantalus instead of trying to get jobs with Krome, Creative Assembly or Pandemic who are also in Brisbane?
insta new job vs hopefully new job
I think Tantalus is starting a Brisbane presence
To be expected, sadly. To those wanting complete security in their jobs - you are in the wrong industry.
"One wonders if there's some Unreal Engine curse for local game developers"
Yeh and there was that dreadful Unreal power game "Bioshock" which was developed jointly between Irrational Canberra and Boston. What a piece of crap that turned out to be :)
Big commiserations to the guys at Auran though. Horrid thing to happen so close to XMas.
Bioshock was the most boring game. Just keep doing the same stuff over and over and over. Aren't you just a bit sick of it already.
Fail.
It's not as great as everyone thinks, IMO. It's not bad, just overrated. System Shock 2 did it first, and did it better.
It sucks that this has happened so close to Christmas. My condolences go out to all the Auran guys and their families. Luckily, for the most part, the games industry seems to be very healthy at the moment (didn't the GDAA say we were expanding from 1600 to 2000 people employed in the games industry from 2007 to 2008?), with many studios looking to expand in all areas, I'm sure you guys won't have trouble finding jobs. Any studios seeking staff will surely be in touch with Auran to help their staff into work. Apparently Tantalus already has the jump on this, I'm sure more studios will follow.
don't know how well the QA guys will go though, considering most companies only hire on temporary people instead of permanent staff.
but best of luck!
Oh no guys this is terrible. I really hope you all get new jobs fast.
We all know what this mean's dont we? Auran is going to be forced to make crappy licensed games just like krome :,(
Oh nice phun on Krome :)
Look hows hiring 320 employees and who's employing 0. Jobs > Original IP
people will do anything to flame krome here.
Ahh tall poppy syndrome! Where would Australia be with out it? Probably a f!ck load further ahead than where we are!
That's it flame yourself so you can tell everyone how good you really are Krome. What is it with these f*&*&cking Australian developers.
Wtf? I am so sick to death of these pointless, divisive digs.
If the bad news about Auran was aimed at Krome I would hope they'd be getting a bunch of people saying... " oh man thats bad news, we hope all you guys land on your feet?"
They hire the same Aussie workers, people with families, friendly people, talented people... oh but hang on, they are doing ok at the moment so we need to be a bunch of tall poppy pricks and keep them in line. What a loser.
How about congratulating anyone in the industry who tries to do something positive instead of getting all teen angst all the time?
And personally, I think it sucks that anyone in Australia is being put in a position to lose their job before Christmas, I truly hope you all find work quickly, you are all talented great people, some of whom I've met and wish well.
The funny thing is I couldn't imagine anyone in the industry with an ounce of talent writing the above nonsense.
Yeah we may work for different, competing companies but a lot of us move between companies regularly, a lot of us are friends, we understand how difficult it is to be a tiny Oz developer in a USA/Japanese dominated market.
How about giving everyone a break and trying to support the local industry instead if being a ridiculous troll?
That's a real shame.
I know the guys at Auran would have worked hard on Fury, but it just wasn't fun to play.
I hope things work out for those being let go.
Sad news, although it was always going to be an uphill battle breaking into the MMO market. Shame about the time of the announcement too (Xmas).
Kudos to Auran for having the balls to try something different and good luck to those being let go. You'll all find work quickly, I'm sure.
Flaming krom for making licensed games is a fun past time:).
now thats just sad.
and by the way it seems around here, everyone is just a krome flamer, no one really cares.
It's were all the rejected portfolios go to die.
lol 2 of my mates work @ Auran, one was extremely passionate was in there all the time doing OT, I sure hope he doesn't get laid off, the other one had a very bad attitude and didn't have the passion, so I wouldn't be suprised if he got the boot.
But as said above, MMO's theres so many out there, and nothing really can cut the cake of WOW, being that aswell as WOW being fun *I don't play the game, its based on a classic IP, that MANY MANY older and newer gamers have played, imo thats why its so successful.
but in sayn that, you have a good product it will take off, both my friends in Auran stated that Fury is a peice of shit to play, and I guess hey, bad luck; but this is the real world and the risk they would have known to be great when they started to dev the game with such an engine.
Have a good evening,