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Dodgy gaming firm coming to Ireland?

  • 22-02-2010 5:28pm
    #1
    Amhran Nua
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,124 ✭✭✭


    Found an interesting story on slashdot about what might be a dodgy software company moving to this neck of the woods, also included is an informative comment on the situation...
    "A US owned gaming company has fled Australia, leaving unpaid employees and a massive tax bill. Apparently many staff have been working unpaid for months to allow their game to ship and hopefully the company to recover. Interzone's Perth (Western Australia) office was created with the assistance of a state government grant. Last week Interzone's (American) CEO entered the building at night and removed all the servers and IP so that Interzone could continue production at a new company they have opened in Ireland. The staff caught him on camera."

    Interzone owes the Australia Tax Office (ATO) approximately $1m AUD and $500k in unpaid wages and superannuation. The owner changed the locks on the firm at 4am in the morning, locking all employees out from their work. Not even given a chance to collect their personal belongings. A new 'Interzone' called Big Collision is being setup in Dublin Ireland to complete development of their game Futebol in time for the World Cup, and without the debt they have accumulated in Australia.

    Originally Interzone was given a grant by the Western Australian goverment of $500k, so this has blown up very big on the news there, causing quite some political issues and questions of the chief Treasurer. They did not even lay off the staff, as that would of caused paper work, and the paying out of their due wages and redundancy money. They were simple locked out from their building.

    The firm that provides the middleware (BigWorld) based in Sydney, provided a server engineer (contracted by Mike) to clear out the IP assets from the server.

    The Interzone employees have been fantastic, in collecting evidence, and staying together to fight for what they are due.

    For people who would like to read more on this, check these links:
    http://www.tsumea.com/australasia/australia/news/120210/interzone-games-perth-closes-staff-locked-out
    http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/02/wa-dev-interzone-games-close-to-liquidation/
    http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/02/interzone-ceo-marty-brickey-responds/
    And this video where the employees confront one of the directors http://vimeo.com/9574704

    I guess the moral of the story is get paid upfront.


Comments

  • #2
    AARRRGH
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,382 ✭✭✭✭AARRRGH


    Interesting. They appear to be http://www.bigcollisiongames.com/ and are currently advertising these roles:

    Senior Systems Programmer
    Web Developer
    Associate Producer
    IT Technologist


  • #3
    Raekwon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,535 ✭✭✭Raekwon


    Sounds like an extremely dodgy incident alright, I'm just baffled that they were given the green light to setup their operation here given that they owe so much money (not just in Australia, but in Brazil & China too). But then again this is Ireland afterall, their corrupt dealings will probably go unnoticed here even with these prior warnings, hopefully they don't get wind of the WPP Scheme :rolleyes:


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