Category Archives: Scotland

Pando Networks has completed a UK study which has revealed download speeds and completion rates across the country are “far slower than many broadband providers advertise.”

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Dundee’s Cohort Studios has announced it’s to close down after its next project has released.

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APB: Reloaded publisher Gamersfirst will open a studio in Scotland, home of original All Points Bulletin team Realtime Worlds.

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Scottish games publisher Outplay Entertainment has announced it plans to build offices and create up to 150 high value jobs in Dundee.

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This is rather sad, actually.

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Yesterday, a rumor was circulating that Realtime Worlds founder Dave Jones had taken a job with Epic Games.

Today, the APB creative director has told Develop the rumor is untrue.

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TIGA has said the Scottish videogames industry is at a “cross roads” , and if it didn’t get some much needed tax breaks, the sector could decline.

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A report has surfaced claiming former Realtime Worlds chairman and chief strategy officer Ian Hetherington has ties with the anonymous US company which purchased Project MyWorld.

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Realtime Worlds is currently chatting up multiple buyers “in both the UK and US,” according to Paul Dounis, the firm’s administration consultant from Begbies Traynor.

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A Realtime Worlds CV has apparently confirmed the studio is working on a project due for release in 2011.

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Now Modern Warfare 2′s out of the way, we’re back to the real deal: some hotel in Scotland’s decided games aren’t conducive to promoting “traditional family values” and has banned them over the Christmas period.

Managing director Stephen Leckie, said children should not be “glued” to game consoles during the holiday,

“As a father-of-four, I’m well aware of the role that computer games play in youngsters’ lives and they undoubtedly have a place,” he said.

“However with Christmas holidays being the ideal opportunity to spend quality time with our families, we’re asking our younger guests to set their consoles and games aside for just a few days of the year and, instead, sample some new activities which they may never have tried before.”

Sounds positively sinister. More on the BBC, should you be bored enough.

Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy has proposed tax breaks for the Scottish videogame industry.

These proposals have come to light after Murphy spoke with Realtime Worlds owner Dave Jones who has threatened to take his company to Ireland should there be further lack of support for developers.

“We have had a discussion about tax breaks and ways to support the industry,” said Murphy to The Evening Telegraph. “France have introduced tax breaks and we want to talk more about that and we will listen to any strong case being made; we want to do whatever we can to help.

“Dundee is the Scottish centre of excellence in this industry. I want to be very clear about that. The games industry has a big future and Dundee has a big future to play in that, in Scotland, in the UK and wider.”

Via Develop.

Realtime Worlds studio boss Colin Macdonald has admitted that Irish tax breaks could see the Scottish studio upping sticks and going green.

The Irish government may be about to specifically target the Scottish games sector by offering developers a five-year tax holiday in return for hopping over the water.

“If the package on offer in Ireland was attractive we’d have to give it serious consideration,” said Macdonald.

“Dundee is a great place to be based, one of the main hubs for ­computer games in Britain, but at the end of the day we’ve got to look after our bottom line.”

More on Herald Scotland.

Realtime Worlds has taken on a new 8,000 square foot office in Dundee in an effort to “grow towards a successful APB launch” early next year.

The developer currently employs 265, but plans to grow to 300 in 2009.

APB will be amazing. Go to work for RTW in its smart new office purely on the strength of that.

PR after the break.

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Realtime Worlds said today it’s hit 250 staff, and has more than 40 positions currently available.

The Scottish developer is finally moving to launch MMO APB in conjunction with EA Partners and now taken on an additional 8,000 sqft of offices to provide high quality working space to compliment the current 26,000 sqft premises.

All the firm’s jobs are listed here. Press release after the break.

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Realtime Worlds’ Dave Jones has told GI he’s not exactly thrilled Crackdown 2 went to Ruffian Games.

“I think it was unfortunate that it had to be with a start-up in Dundee… it is challenging to get enough developers in one region as it is, so that was the only little big of negativity to the story,” he said.

“It’s just one of those awkward moments. In terms of the franchise, as always – as with anything we’ve created – we’re always keen to see it do great things. This is like a bump in the road… was there really no way it could have been done by one of the studios Microsoft shut down?

“I was a bit miffed at Microsoft that it happened that way, but you live and learn,” he added.

Ruffian’s staff roster includes many that worked on the original Crackdown.

Crackdown 2 was announced in Microsoft’s E3 press conference at the beginning of the month.

Realtime Worlds’ Dave Jones has called on the UK government to invest more heavily in the games industry in an effort to help it maintain its position in the global trade.

“Let’s make sure we invest in careers to” keep Britain at the “cutting edge” of the global industry, he told BBC News today.

The interview took place at Realtime’s Scottish offices. And yep, APB was on the screens.

Jones, the original creator of Grand Theft Auto, noted that “some of the biggest ever games in the world have come out of the UK.”

The BBC’s TV report described games as a “huge growth area”.

Britain’s creative industry’s in general will contribute £85 billion to the economy by 2013, said the piece, and employ some 1.3 million people.

Ruffian’s just updated its homepage to include a list of jobs, presumably to work on Crackdown 2.

Are you an environment artist, senior gameplay engineer, senior environment artist, outsource manager or animator? Do you care that Ruffian’s based in Dundee?

Get on it, then.

This is Ruffian Games’ fridge. It’s full of Stella and Red Bull. Almost looks as though it’s stocked for a celebration.

Can you guess why?

We’re now officially stupidly excited. The MS conference starts at 10.25am PST, or 6.25pm UK time.

Over at Edge’s job section you can see that Rockstar North – you know, that tiny Scottish-based dev firm that does those open world thingies called ‘Grand Theft Auto’ – is looking to fill eight positions.

The jobs range from level designer, AI programmer to senior tools programmer giving us that sneaky suspicion that perhaps a new title is on the way. Either that, or eight people just left and they need replacing.

So, fancy a job working for one of the best development houses in Europe? All through the link.