THQ, shutting it down
polycounter lvl 9
Thq closed two studios today.
Rainbow Studios/ Thq Digital Phoenix and a studio is Australia. Good luck to those effected, it's rough out there.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36472/THQ_Lays_Off_200_Employees_Closes_Australian_Studios.php
Rainbow Studios/ Thq Digital Phoenix and a studio is Australia. Good luck to those effected, it's rough out there.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36472/THQ_Lays_Off_200_Employees_Closes_Australian_Studios.php
Replies
If any of you Arizonans wanna chop 10 degrees off the average local temperature, we've got a spot open for a UI guru here in Vegas.
http://www.petroglyphgames.com/careers
jimmypopali - unless you're some kind of artist savant/prodigy whom emits rainbows from your butt, seems like you shouldn't - but meh, just my cynical morose opinion.
If there is any awesome artists from bluetongue and thq brisbane who can do 2d and 3d who were affected, send us an email at halfbrick, pretty sure we are looking for new guys.
Edit:
those positions mentioned.
http://tsumea.com/australasia/australia/news/100811/halfbrick-jobs-concept-artists
http://tsumea.com/australasia/australia/news/100811/halfbrick-jobs-paid-intern-positions-available
The Aussie game industry is really struggling, if things don't get better I might have to look overseas or change industries
Anyone pass the word Funcom here in Montreal is looking to hire Animators, and Programmers.
Possibly another Environment Artist in a little while.
Really hope everyone affected lands on their feet.
Good luck to all of you folks in finding work.
Your best bet, maybe your only real bet at this point, is to get up to spec on Iphone and mobile gaming. Learn super low res modelling and texturing. Look into flash and 2d animation. Have a look over unity and UDK. Anything you can to make yourself more valuable as an employee.
If you do want to try the high end 3d stuff, then film is your best bet in Aus. There's very frequently jobs for 3d generalists (modellers that can rig and animate at a minimum) that pop up on the Digital Labourers Federation (DLF) mailing list.
Oh, signing up to that list is probably your first stop in trying to find work in the current climate.
http://www.dlf.org.au/
Signing up to LinkedIn and on to a few groups there is also a good idea.
Best of luck to all those affected.
:C
Last day is friday. I'll swing a pint in their honour and good luck for the future
*fuzzy eyes
*pandemic
*thq
*krome
So 2/3 of the local industry wiped out in 2 years.
Now there is just tantalus, sega(creative assembly) and us at halfbrick. And im not even sure how sega and tantalus are going.
I joined my company right at the time when we were making a shift to original ip. What happened is that at the start of the shift we slowly divided the company in half with a small portion making original ip with the licenced work supporting them, and as the original ip began to make money the ratio was slowly shifted over to being all original.
The first efforts for original ip were pretty bad with all but one failing to make its money back, until we finally got some major traction. I think we released about 8 games on various platforms before we hit success.
I guess the lesson here anyway is that we survived because when the work for hire got harder to acquire instead of making people redundant the risk was taken to use the free time as an asset. I don't get how releasing a strong studio like blue tongue makes sense, get them making games they are passionate about instead of catering to a specific demographic that cant support it.
Hope everyone effected lands on there feet soon.
Irrational, or whatever they're called these days are still working on XCom.
EA are still rolling along, developing something current gen as well as having sponged up all of the IPhone developers in Melbourne.
Big Ant and Torus seem to be surviving.
I heard Team Bondi are selling out to KMM Productions who own the Doctor D effects house. I vaguely recollect a rumour of Doctor D looking into games development, so I'm guessing that's what this is all about. If that is indeed the case that'll probably be a large, independently wealthy studio setting up in Sydney.
There are a few startup studios, mostly tiny bedroom operations about too. It's not a healthy industry but it's not quite dead. Yet.
I don't think 40 dollar+ price games for children are purchased by parents anymore, when the alternative is just as effective in keeping kids busy.
OT
@Acr0:
You are so right about the free to $1.00
@DeeKei: looks like everyone is trying to get pieces of the pie.
I expect their to be more closings & lay offs (not good I know but not unrealistic either), It's not like back in the days. Just have 2 more backup plans for your career choice cause boy of boy now a days It's just not looking good at all.
Nice thing is China isn't too far away from Australia so it's still not too difficult to visit home once in a while.
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/09/what-was-thq-brisbane-working-on-before-the-studio-closed/
spoilers: Are they fighting skrulls in the avenger movie? I thought it was all about black cube of odin and loki just being a dick on the earth realm again?
Nothing but ios developers and a few start up, oh and there is Pitchblack, but I wouldn't hold my breathe for those guys.
We've still got a few studios, but they're dwindling. I'm rather happy to be out of the industry at the moment.
Crytek Frankfurt is looking for ENV and Charater Artists!
For anyone looking for work, Activision / High Moon in Sunny Southern Cali has 12 openings right now, with more coming!
You can see the entire list here:
http://activision.taleo.net/careersection/00003/jobsearch.ftl?lang=en&portal=8160110982
looks like someone leaked the other Aussie game that was canned...
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/30/3051904/brawl-may-have-been-blue-tongues-last-game
I hope everyone lands on their feet!
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/171519/Strategy_game_company_Kixeye_opens_Australian_studio.php
I still have bad memories with THQ, looks like they're doing business as usual.
...lol....The tired, poor and wretched, former citizens of other countries, thank you for their collective laugh you've provided this morning.
*Sorry just getting to my first cup of tea today.:)