Auran CEO Tony Hilliam has made a statement regarding the rumour that the company today planned to let a number of staff go, mainly in its QA department.
While Hilliam confirms that the Fury team will be reduced, it’s more to do with creating an “agile” group of developers better able to address the needs of the game. Contrary to what the original Angry Gamer story led many to believe, the company is not going bust:
As I explained to the staff yesterday, whilst FURY has started off slower than expected, I still see a bright and long future ahead. However, that future will not include the full 60 man development team who have worked on FURY for the past year. The future will focus on a smaller, more agile core team of Fury developers. These are people who are incredibly passionate about the game and work until 4 in the morning to ensure they get things done.
It’s actually fairly normal for a dev team to shrink after the release of a title. The difference here is that Auran is going to the trouble of finding ex-employees other opportunities instead of just casting them into the sea of joblessness.
The statement goes on to mention that Auran plans to outsource at least some of the content development for Fury to China, where it says it has had a lot of success already.
Finally, Hilliam says that Tantalus (who we’re stilling waiting to hear from) is right now opening a new studio near Auran’s base of operations up in Brisbane. The new studio, which will focus on Wii and DS titles, will employ a few ex-Auran folk.
Tony’s full statement can be found after the jump.
You guys know that I have a problem when it comes to caffeine. One could say a very serious problem.
Really, I should be dead or, at the very least, comatose.
My choice of energy drink is V. I was under the impression it was manufactured by a New Zealand company, Frucor. Support the mother country and all that.
While it technically is made by Frucor, it hasn’t been NZ-owned for a number of years now. In 2002, it was bought by Group Danone, a French company, and since then all my sparkling dollars have been funnelled to the land of croissants, berets and obnoxious body odour.
I’ve been disappointed by V lately, however, for an entirely different reason that has nothing to do with this deception. The last four bottles I’ve cracked open have all been sans carbonation.
And without the bubbles, the stuff tastes like arse water… if such a potent liquid exists.
Anyway, what’s your favourite caffeinated drink? Red Bull? Buzz Monkey? A syringe of epinephrine? Let us know.
There’s not much to dislike about Half-Life 2. With the exception of its sometimes dreary atmosphere and the deafening silence of empty vessel Gordon Freeman, it gets just about everything right. The screenwriting team at Valve should be commended for fashioning one of the few ongoing story lines in which I actually find myself invested, now nine years in the telling. But the team at Valve, I believe, deserves credit for one of Episode Two‘s most welcome features: the recap.
Like any fracas between ex-lovers, the current showdown between former Guitar Hero pillowmates Red Octane (Guitar Hero III) and Harmonix (Rock Band) is an entertaining one. And that’s just in the marketplace. When they literally start talking shit at each other, well, it’s time to pull up a chair and grab a snack of your choosing. Red Octane’s Charles Huang: I don’t think we’re too interested in having their guitars work on our game, because they’re having a lot of issues with their guitars. From our standpoint, to be quite honest, if you know a competitor’s product has issues, there’s not a whole lot of motivation to make these problematic controllers work with your game. Why would you want to cause yourself the headache?
He did not go there, did he? Oh, he so just went there.
Guitar, Interrupted [1UP]
Developer CCP has addressed the minor snafu that was causing Trinity, the latest update for its MMO EVE Online, to overwrite an important boot file required by Windows XP systems.
Here’s the word from CCP:
Shortly after the deployment of the update, CCP became aware of an issue involving the Premium graphics content download whereby a small percentage of our users may have been affected and now need to make repairs to system files. We immediately set to work to identify the cause and resolve it. A new build is now available and is safe for all users to download and install.
If you’ve already gone and installed the patch, CCP has a page up with instructions on how to rectify the problem.
EVE Online Installer Fixed [Blue's News]
New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes looks absolutely stunned at the realisation his photo is going to appear on next year’s edition of 2K Sports Major League Baseball game. The MLB 2K8 cover star said, according to a press release, “This is the first time I have ever been on the cover of a video game.” The visibly shaken spokesman was then calmed by friends and family, none of whom saw the cover appearance coming.
Major League Baseball 2K8 executive producer Ben Brinkman did his best to make the best of the situation, saying “Jose Reyes is a multi-talented player – a great baserunner, fielder and hitter, making him the perfect spokesperson for Major League Baseball 2K8.” Despite the sensitive nature of the out of the blue endorsement, 2K Sports plan to go ahead with the game’s Spring 2008 release, which should arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2 and PSP. A press release follows after this moment of silence.
To: Luke From: Fahey Re: Learning to Like Coffee (And Possibly Regret it)
I see how it is. Crecente was in transit all day today, though you still address your Night Note to him. Thanks a lot Ashcraft. From now on all my Day Notes are addressed to Luke, who is much more considerate despite being Australian. Maybe one day you’ll earn back my trust.
So Luke! Luke Plunkett. How’s things? How’s Australia treating you? Is your beard doing well? I like that you can grow such a manly beard, unlike certain other Kotaku writers on your side of the planet. I just wanted to tell you that out of all of our nighttime Kotaku writers, you are hands-down my favourite. Next time we’re all at an event together we should get together and get some tacos. Just you and me. Did you know they don’t have good Mexican food in Japan? Someone once told me that, but I can’t remember who. He probably doesn’t deserve tacos anyway. I was totally going to mail him some, but that bird has flown. Speaking of birds that have flown…
What Luke and Not Ashcraft Missed: Phantasy Star Comes To PSP, Tragically More Street Fighter IV Details, Pics EVE Online Trinity Update Kills XP Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer III: “Move up, Ladies.” WoW Helps Boy Triumph Over Moose
Look, this clip, via Technabob and Arcade Heroes, is admittedly quite dull, due to poor editing and the fact that Christmas trees don’t really do much of anything but emit light. Still, a Pac-Man themed ode to the Baby Jesus and the purchasing of Isotoner gloves is worth looking at, largely due to the quality. Those in and around the Madrid, Spain area can stop by the Nuevos Ministerios to have a gander for themselves.
Wedbush Morgan analyst always seems like such a mundane title when dealing with the master of video game precognisance that is Michael Pachter. Speaking with Shacknews, the Pachtman puts forth the possibility that Rockstar Games founders Sam and Dan Houser could very well slip from under Take-Two Interactive’s wing once their contracts come up in February 2009, much like Bungie jumped from Microsoft. It all comes down to money. “I don’t think that this is an issue of dissatisfaction with Take-Two; rather, I think it is rational to believe that in the wake of the $US 850 million Pandemic/BioWare deal, high quality developers like Bungie and [Rockstar]North would look to test their market value”
How much do you think a company like Microsoft or Sony would be willing to pay to secure Rockstar’s exclusive service? How much would you pay? What if we threw in the magic of Pancake Puffs?
Pachter: GTA Dev Rockstar North May Eventually ‘Pull a Bungie,’ Split from Take-Two [Shacknews]
Last week’s hardware numbers from Media Create showed that the Wii was back on track to regaining first place in the console races, having suffered displacement from a cheaper, Shin Sangoku Musou 5-equipped PlayStation 3. Now that Wii Fit‘s arrived, Nintendo is back in the lead. For the period between November 26th and December 2nd, the company sold more than it has on a weekly basis since July. Thanks, Wii Fit!
Nintendo DS Lite – 124,591 Wii – 74,764 PSP – 74,626 PlayStation 3 – 37,092 PlayStation 2 – 13,703 Xbox 360 – 6,632
