It's smart business to pick up new developers whenever a smaller development studio goes under, but rarely is the response this quick. Activision and Blitz Studios are both moving to offer employment to those who find themselves jobless in the wake of Realtime Worlds entering administration yesterday.
Develop reported that Activision began preparations yesterday, putting six human resources and development staff on a plane to Dundee where Realtime is headquartered. The staff members include Nikki Cooper, HR Manager; Phil Hindle, Technical Director; Mike Rutter, Art Manager; James Horn, Senior Environment Artist; and Neil Campbell and Graham Watson, both Lead Programmers. With the help of a local agency called Specialmove, Activision will be holding a special recruitment event this Thursday and Friday at the Apex Hotel, in City Quay of Dundee.
Thursday will include presentations on the latest vacancies in Activision’s U.K. studios like Freestyle Games (developers of DJ Hero), and Bizarre Creations (Blur and the new James Bond game, Blood Stone). Friday will have selected one-on-one interviews to fill key positions in the company.
“It is always disappointing to hear about the difficulties faced by development studios. It is our duty to support the industry and try to provide some assistance and opportunity to those talented staff affected by job losses. Activision is at a very exciting time, they have a wonderful network of talented studios in the UK and overseas. They can provide a secure option and the opportunity to work on some amazing games,” said Andy Campbell, CEO of Specialmove.
"We're looking forward to the opportunity to chat to you about the Activision independent studio model, our teams and latest projects," said Chris Lee, VP of Activision Europe. "We understand it's a difficult time for everyone involved and hope we're able to provide some support and opportunity to anyone keen to consider roles with Activision."
Blitz Studios is also reaching out a helping hand and has contacted John Duthie, Realtime Worlds’ Head of Human Resources to see who would be available to fill open positions at Blitz. Blitz is sending four executive staff member of its Studio Development Group, to speak with Realtime Worlds staff about employment opportunities. The developer has a meeting room reserved in the Apex Hotel Thursday and Friday as well.
"We know that Realtime Worlds has some fantastically talented people and were very sorry to hear the news as it broke late last week. We think Realtime Worlds staff will be pleasantly surprised at the opportunities we can offer them and look forward to talking with them,” said Blitz Studios CEO, Philip Oliver in a statement.
1 Comments
August 20, 2010
I think the vulture graphic is slightly uncalled for here...you can't blame either studio for being so proactive and it is hardly the worst outcome for Realtime World's staff. In most other industries right now, redundancy pretty much equates to a protracted and dispiriting spell of unemployment.
What this possibly illustrates is that, even in the midst of a lengthy and horrible economic spell, that (a) the games industry is doing reasonably well (overall) but that (b) the industry (including colleges and universities) hasn't done a particularly good job at developing a pipeline of appropriately prepared and skilled talent. Blitz, I know, are absolutely one of the most proactive and committed 'people developers' in the sector yet even they are desperate to grab experienced staff when they come available. This doesn't bode well for when the economic tide eventually turns and when studios look to invest and grow more aggressively.