The news is filtering through that Rockstar Vienna closed it's doors, leaving 100 employees out of work, effective immediately.
This is sad news but proof that major closures don't simply happen in Australia. As an aside, I believe there are a number of Australians working for Rockstar.
Heh. Anyone think a factor might have been the many lawsuit payouts they've had to cop for making half the games they make?
Just a thought. It's not worth closing the doors to 100 people. Many American based entertainment companies have sold off or shut down their overseas limbs. [Or worse, sold them off and replant them in cheep shop areas like china]
Not sure though. I'm just rambling. [Looks up and reads the last sentence of souris 2nd post.]
Damm...well. I always knew take-two had a taste for evil games...but their also evil business man?...good going take two. Turn into another EA games.
From Gamasutra:
"According to independent reports received by Gamasutra, Rockstar has unexpectedly closed its Rockstar Vienna development office (particularly known for its Grand Theft Auto Xbox conversion) under cover of E3, laying off more than 100 employees, in a major blow to development in Austria, where the company was the biggest developer.
In addition, further confirmation has come in the form of a weblog post by Rockstar Vienna employee Jurie Horneman: "This morning, as I came into work, I was greeted by security guards. It turned out Take-Two has closed their Rockstar Vienna office, effective immediately, "due to the challenging environment facing the video game business and our Company during this platform transition"."
This closure follows the shuttering of 2K's Indie Built Studio in Salt Lake City, and shows that Take-Two is suffering significantly through the hardware transition - or, at least, has taken the opportunity to change its internal development strategy, leading to the closure of these studios."
So Take Two closd them down, to only just announced that they were [url="http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9244"]opening up a studio[/url] in Shanghai. o_O