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Find your future at Guerilla Games overseeing the multiplayer component of its next project, Media Molecule or Crytek UK.
Find your future at Guerilla Games overseeing the multiplayer component of its next project, Media Molecule or Crytek UK.
Find your future at Media Molecule working on the followup to LittleBigPlanet, Codemasters or Crytek UK.
Social gaming site Hi5 has confirmed to TechCrunch that it has reduced its headcount by 28, saying improvements to its infrastructure meant the company needed fewer staff. More >
Consultation underway as Codemasters shifts focus and resources to Midlands racing studios; 66 staff at risk.
1Disney Interactive has confirmed to Gamasutra that it has cut jobs at its Utah-based subsidiary Avalanche Software. The studio, which recently completed on Cars 2: The Videogame and before that delivered another Disney tie-in, Toy Story 3, is understood to have let between 15 and 20 staff go on September 1.
The publisher is doing its bit to help reverse Japan's declining birth rate, offering parents having a third child a support bonus of ¥2 million (£16,120) and those expecting a first or second child ¥200,000 (£1,612). Both male and female employees are eligible for the ¥2 million bonus provided they take a week off in the first 56 days following the child's birth, and write a "child rearing report," though there are no such conditions attached to the ¥200,000 bonus. Namco Bandai will also open a child care centre in its Shinagawa office, and is looking at doing the same in its other offices across Japan.
3Avni Yerli says allegations of wrongful dismissal and excessive Crysis 2 crunch are "completely misleading."
Find your future at Crytek, Codemasters or Ninja Theory on the game industry's premier recruitment board.
1Publisher insists it's business as usual despite laying off one quarter of staff at Mafia II developer.
Joystiq reports that the Toronto studio, whose sole released work was the downloadable Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale, has effectively closed its doors. A source confirmed that around 90 per cent of staff at the studio are officially on "temporary layoffs", and have not received severance pay, with many of those affected already working elsewhere.
Following THQ's announcement last night that it is to close two Australian studios, and a US team in Phoenix with the loss of 200 jobs, Sega Studios Australia director Marcus Fielding said he hoped to be able to help staff at THQ Studio Australia, which like Sega is based in Brisbane, find new employment. "We are deeply saddened by the loss of another great Australian developer, and are sorry to see THQ's studios close their doors after so many years of game development," he told MCV. "We will be speaking to Sega executives to explore our short-term hiring strategy to reflect the sudden influx of talent in Australia. We hope to be able to announce the potential for taking on more staff soon." Sega Studio Australia is currently advertising for an art director and senior engine programmer.
De Blob 2 developer Blue Tongue, THQ Studio Australia and Phoenix development team closed in "strategic realignment."
2Staff told to accept job with Mad Max director's production studio KMM or face redundancy.
2Gamasutra reports that Disney Interactive has cut upwards of 30 staff at Buenos Aires social studio Three Melons. While declining to confirm the number of staff affected, Disney said: "As part of our ongoing strategy to best position the Disney Interactive Media Group for success in digital media, we continually evaluate and refine our business. As part of this process we've made targeted layoffs within the division." Three Melons was acquired last year by Playdom, the social studio which was itself acquired by Disney last July.
But, argues Ubisoft and BioWare veteran Charles Randall, doing so requires a level of maturity that the game industry sorely lacks.
13Excessive overtime can be minimised by realism and sound planning, says The Baconing producer.
1Brink studio's CEO says overtime is sometimes inevitable but "you have to have respect for staff."
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Faxion Online developers let go; affected employee says redundancies higher than reported.
Former head studio programmer at Gameloft Auckland Glenn Watson has accused the mobile developer of poor working conditions and excessive hours. "Some weeks I was working 100 to 120 hours a week," he said. "Starting at 9:30, going home at 2:30 [the following day], and then coming back into the office at 8:30 to start work again was not unusual. There were other times when I would be called back into the office at 23:30 by the studio producer, only to head home again at 2:30. It was after I worked four consecutive weeks of fourteen-hour days - including weekends - that I realised I needed to resign." Watson said that the recent similar allegations levelled at Team Bondi by former employees partly inspired his revelations. He also claimed that Gameloft would often impose artificial deadlines in order to make employees work faster, despite the actual timeframes being considerably less tight. "Gameloft asked me to 'apologise' for leaving the studio and shouldering others with the burden of my work," Watson added. "I feel the best apology I can give is to ensure that they never get put through the same rubbish conditions again." We've approached Gameloft for comment.