Reports on Twitter and some news out of the Games Connect: Asia Pacific conference seem to suggest that Krome Studios will close its doors this Monday.
Krome underwent some redundancies in August, and initially, writes Tsumea, rumours stated that there would be another round today, before reports became more serious.
Sadly, it now seems that the entire studio will close, with some of the staff being rehired as contractors to finish off any outstanding work.
Our condolences to everyone involved at Krome.
Krome Studios to close doors on Monday, contractors will continue work [Tsumea]
Qumulys
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 7:55 PMAnd POW another company bites it. :( Its really sad to see these closures left right and center. I know I would be worried if my kids wanted to go into game design in Australia, seems they would never move out of home…
Goodluck for the future any kromies reading this :)
Ben
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:07 PMWoah… I didn’t think Blade Kitten would have sold that badly…
Googootz
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:08 PMwhy is it that the australian games industry is suffering so badly? some of the biggest studios in the world right now are in canada which is similar sized economy to australia so why is australia having so many problems?
Jeff Pearce
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:27 PMThere are several reasons – but the main one is that the Government pumps money into the industry, and people get to keep their jobs. Out government instead pumps our money into the mining corporations, and would you look at that – they’re thriving.
Scared
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:35 PMGovernment support. Makes games in Canada and get a discount or something. I guess I can give up on getting a job….ever.
AmbroseIV
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:13 PMHorrible news for one of our more prominent developers.
Our film industry receives government finance, why can’t the games/software industry which is worth more?
James Mac
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 9:04 PMThe Victorian Government just started offering 100K to development studios.
James Mac
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:16 PMBugger.
It seems the only ones not getting closed these days are the iPhone developers.
Andrew Burdusel
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:17 PMWell that sucks
MrTaco
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:36 PMWow. So is this the entirety of Krome, across Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne?
Aidan Dullard
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:46 PMTerrible news. Very sad for everyone affected by this – hope they can get back on their feet soon.
faceplant
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 8:46 PMWorking at krome for 10 years and leaving before it got this bad, i would love to tell you why i think it failed. maybe after the dust settles…. My heart goes out to all the kromens, Most of you guys worked your asses of and deserve much much more.
Richard
Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 3:27 PMIs it because they didn’t make any good games?
Alex Walker
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 9:14 PMI woulda so preferred it if that opening sentence was swapped around =(
David Fowles
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 9:26 PMWell that’s a pile of poo.
I wonder if our exploding dollar has anything to do with it. Apparently it affects exporters and, I assume, the cheapness of foreign companies using local labour.
Scared
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 9:58 PMIt certainly paid a part. A publisher used to be able to give us a 2 million budget to a team but when it came time to pay they only had to pay roughly 1 million USD (because of the exchange rate). They love us for cheap workers.
Smokestack
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 10:08 PMI reckon Mana Bar will be full of developers drowing their sorrows come Monday night.
oprah's minge
Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 12:46 AMonly losers go there, thats insulting to developers…
Paul
Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 10:22 AMI’m fairly sure the developers don’t need you speaking on their behalf.
Daniel
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 10:28 PMIncredibly disappointing news. A few years back the industry seemed to be thriving, and I was studying Game Art at TAFE. Next thing you know, Ratbag gets bought out and shut down, and it was basically all downhill from there. The Australian games industry seems to have fallen to its knees, as far as bigger development companies are concerned. It’s an absolute shame.
21603
Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 1:14 AMWhat happened to the merger with Emergent?
Robert Yule
Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 10:33 AMI was at gcap, the news spread in whispers during the f
Closing speech.
greg d
Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 2:49 PMi think it could of been due to poor selection and choices in what content they made.
but no is sure to know unless it comes from krome
anyways its speculation atm isnt it ?
gator
Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 5:10 PMEmergent will be the next company you see to close down.
trevor
Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 9:50 PMIt’s a shame. Most of the guys working in the industry in Australia work extremely hard. From people i know, they are busting their arses over 60 hours a week – without payed compensation.
It would be nice if the government could help finance the industry, but it doesnt look like that would happen. Instead they would rather waste 50+ billion on an broadband network which will be outdated in 10 years time, and waste time talking about supposed ‘man-made climate change’ – when all humans will be extinct in 10 thousand years anyway when the next ice age comes along.
Escape
Monday, October 18, 2010 at 4:12 PMSad news. Good luck to all the Krome devs who are now looking for new work.
v4next
Monday, October 18, 2010 at 6:49 PM2K Marin/Australia should snap’em up – their working on XCOM at the moment! I gota say, I hated Tye the Tasmanian tiger, but GameRoom was a cool idea…
david
Friday, October 29, 2010 at 2:08 PMBlade kitten killed Krome.
What were they thinking with that game.
Sorry about the loss of jobs but the studio really did make crap games.
Tanner peters
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 1:46 PMThe truth is that Krome is still alive but smaller. This source came from the founder it self Space Caption Steve. And I ask Steve trought deviant art, so Krome has beaten up by the ecomoy in Australia but it’s not down for the count!
Tanner peters
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 1:53 PMHere’s Steves deviantart site http://falterdan.deviantart.com/