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rockstar vienna closed!

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thomasp hero character
seems this happened today or yesterday. the info is from an ex-coworker's friend who worked there ( blog site).
this must have been the largest dev studio in the german speaking countries so it's pretty sad for the biz around here. apparently they had like 100 employees. i'd say it's by far the biggest sinking local ship since my ex-employer westka went down four years ago. how are one hundred people supposed to find new jobs in this small industry? better to get one of those greencards, it seems...

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  • Ferg
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    Ferg polycounter lvl 17
    or find some investors looking to get in on the $30 billion (and growing fast) game industry and open up some new studios smile.gif
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    uh, there's a different mentality regarding games and entertainment products in general over here, no matter how successful you are. look up the history of factor5 and see for yourself.
  • Ferg
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    Ferg polycounter lvl 17
    I didn't mean to imply it was "that easy", I guess I just wanted to throw something positive into the thread. Always makes me sad to hear about industry friends losing their job, especially in such large numbers. I wish them all the best of luck finding new jobs doing what they love...
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    sure sure, i did get your signal there, it's just far from trivial to find investors - unless you sign with one of the small and poor publishers - for crappy conditions, of course. it's like a catch 22 wink.gif
  • poopinmymouth
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    poopinmymouth polycounter lvl 19
    From his blog: "Many of my coworkers - those with families and houses, those with roots in Vienna, those who invested many years of their lives in this company, those who moved here from abroad - are in difficult positions."

    That pisses me off to no end. Screw you Take two, screw you in the butt with a pool stick.

    poop.gif
  • thnom
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    thnom polycounter lvl 18
    Man didn't Shimmer just recently get a job there? In the past 3 month or so..
  • notman
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    notman polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]

    That pisses me off to no end. Screw you Take two, screw you in the butt with a pool stick.


    [/ QUOTE ]

    lol, tell us how you really feel wink.gif

    (I agree though)
  • Miguelito
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    Miguelito polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    Man didn't Shimmer just recently get a job there? In the past 3 month or so..

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Yes he did...
    I think this is a bad omen for the european game industry!
  • spacemonkey
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    spacemonkey polycounter lvl 18
    Take 2 also just announced the opening of a studio in Shanghai.. it could be coincidence that Vienna is shut down at the same time.. but I doubt it.
    As far as I am aware, they did very good ports of games, but the studio lacked direction on the games they were trying to develop themselves.. this is what I heard from an ex employee today on a different forum.
    Shame for everyone who worked there frown.gif
  • Prs-Phil
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    Prs-Phil polycounter lvl 18
    yeah, sucks, alot of tears involved, lots of people that where ther for 6 years have lost their position. It happened so fast, they had securtiy stopping the team from entering the premise from one day to the next.

    Fat Lawyers sitting there dismissing the people in groups of 5 and a boss that could do nothing but pass on the bad news.

    Very emotional funeral.

    Shimmer has lost his job, yes, after 4 months but it doesn't throw him of track as bad as a large part of the team and he has time to get the flat into shape.
  • _Shimmer
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    _Shimmer polycounter lvl 18
    So, ok Yesterday:

    I come to the buisness park where R*V is located. I go to the supermarket, fetch my breakfest and stand in line of the cash and while waiting I see this crowd of people from the studio sitting there, drinkin beer. I think to myself "Ooookey, Wolfgang (our beloved senior programmer) is going, earlier then expected, but hey." I walk to them. Some are happy some are hevaly upset and I think "W-T-F". I was heading to the office while our producer was walking in front of me. We get into the elevator and he says "Oh, did you already hear it?" "No, what?" "We are closing" "Your kidding me" "No". Elevator stops we are at the front of the office. Our Keys disabled, Security securing the doors and try to prevent data theft. We get a handout:


    Subject: Closing of Rockstar Vienna


    Ok, wow. I think to myself "That´s it. But hey, thats a good way to start the industry, isnt it? It was a nice guest performance"

    Ok so we were let in in groups of 5 and had a talk with our chef and finace manager, both 14 year veterans and founders of neo, then R*V. they were standin in the middle of the room. Two lawyers sitting at a table, watching our chefs tell 107 workers that the company is closed, for no special reason.

    the whole office shut down and we had to use the backdoor to get out.

    For me, I worked there for 4 months, still I liked to work there. The people were nice the general climate was extraordinary. But I am young and flexible anyway. I try to see this event as a chance to go study or do something nice with my life, like learning painting with oils smile.gif

    What pisses me off is the following:

    One programmer, just had a newborn and wanted to start a family.

    Our concept artist, came back from Sweden where he told his parents-in-law that he will marry their daughter. He just came back yesterday and break into tears cause he loved this project.

    Our senior artis, worked for 6 years in the company. He will start as a real rockstar on the guitar.

    Our animator is in Vietnam, I hope sombody called him.

    3 people are newlyweds and just relocated to a better (and more expensive ) flat.

    My junior fellow, is a dumbass. Consequently he wants to build a space shuttle.

    Senior Level Artist, he is celebrating his third closing.

    A Programmer, hit the fifth closing.

    The guys who relocated, need to stay here since the flats have a one year contract in which you cant liquidate your flat.

    107 people lost their job. some have family or roots here to stay. And in austria, there is NOTHING. If you want to work in this industry, you need to relocate.

    Overall, shit happens. I am very lucky to be young and talented and didnt burn down the bridges to my outsourcing studio of choice.

    And yeah, I can get the flat into shape finally smile.gif But dont expect me to wash your socks Phil!


    Its lame and it sucks
  • _Shimmer
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    _Shimmer polycounter lvl 18
    And oh yes, one of our two projects was 2 weeks before completion. The currenty build is probably broken cause they shut down the severs and builders laugh.gif
  • JKMakowka
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    JKMakowka polycounter lvl 18
    Damn, that sucks.

    It is one thing to close down a studio... but doing it in such a bad way really makes it even worse frown.gif
  • CrazyButcher
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    CrazyButcher polycounter lvl 18
    fuck this world :/
  • MoP
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    MoP polycounter lvl 18
    That really sucks, especially the manner in how it was handled. Just terrible. I wish everyone who used to work there the best of luck.
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    i just noticed that the website has vanished already. incredible. that stunt took some careful preparations, i guess.

    take it as a warning, kids wink.gif especially all those who work for one of the subsidiaries of a big corp. be a part of their core business or have a parachute handy.
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    This bullshit seems to be happening more and more. This industry needs a fucking good shake up, to organise some way to stop or at the very least lessen the frequency of this kind of shit happening over and over and over again.

    As problematic as it may be, the time for the consideration of a union or similar set up may be getting closer. We really can't afford to sit back and let this happen.
  • Prs-Phil
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    Prs-Phil polycounter lvl 18
    dsc_6023_cropped.jpg

    Left: Fukari Alexander, an ex-work collegue, Senior 3d Artist, 3 Months at R*, I´ll be seeing him soon again wink.gif

    Middle: Cronin Mark, Senior Levelartist, 1 1/2 years at R*, 3rd closeing in his career, finally going to persue his passion for gardening

    Right: Viranyi Stephan, Junior 3d Artist, 4 months at R*, baffeld, desperatly searching for love.


    http://www.screaming-in-silence.com/rsv/index2.html
  • Miguelito
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    Miguelito polycounter lvl 18
    I love beer gardens!
  • Marcus Dublin
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    Marcus Dublin polycounter lvl 17
    My best wishes to you guys, I hope you find work soon. Man I'm depressed just reading about this since this can happen to anyone of us at anytime!

    Marcus Dublin
    IM: mxd76@hotmail.com
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
  • killingpeople
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    killingpeople polycounter lvl 18
    what a bummer. fuck.
  • gamePat
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    gamePat polycounter lvl 17
    Oh man this is such a huge hit in the stomache of the games-industry in the german-speaking area. I'm student of the Games-Academy in Berlin and I know a lot of buddys here that wanted to applicate at rockstar vienna, because It was their great dream. And we have an austrian student too, whose one and only aim was rockstar vienna.

    So good luck all you rockstars, you rock anyway !
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    union?

    [/ QUOTE ]Or something... I dunno. Business isn't my strong point. Surely theres a way that we can get around this complete lack of respect from publishers.

    Anyway, deepest condolences to the Vienna boys and best of luck in finding new and better ventures.
  • Dukester
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    Dukester polycounter lvl 18
    Not sure what good a Union would do for you if your employer is closing down.
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    From my extremely limited knowledge of unions, one of their functions is to stop workers getting fired at the drop of a hat, right? Of course one of their other major functions is to make things as horribly inefficient as possible.

    As I said, I really don't know anything about the complex workings of business, but the system we've currently got really does need to change.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    hm .. i´m sorry about what happend there.. but i don´t know why this industry has some realy crazy ways of going on.. i mean.. how many industys or "jobs" are out there, where you can loose your job as easy and "normal" as in the game-industry? what i say is: it´s no good decission to work in this industry AND try to start a familie.. i don´t say it´s impossible.. but there are better jobs out there to do so... sad world ...
  • Joao Sapiro
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    Joao Sapiro sublime tool
    im really sorry for you guys, shimmer and the rest of the gang, i just hope that you can suceed, and heads up when you are brought down !

    ..out of words...but its life...hard...
  • Kevin Albers
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    Kevin Albers polycounter lvl 18
    Bummer. It sure seems like it was handled in a pretty uncool way. The first studio I worked at was closed in a similar fashion...no warning, shut down as a project was wrapping up, and people kicked out of the building before they had time to copy stuff to make demo reels etc.

    Hopefully another studio can be started up in the area, and a bunch of folks can get industry jobs again.
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