Tag Archives: dundee

This is rather sad, actually.

More »

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.

More »

VG247 has been told that David Reeves – confirmed as leaving SCEE as president this morning – is to take up a senior position at Scottish developer Realtime Worlds.

Reeves will leave SCEE on April 30, to be replaced by current CMO Andrew House.

No one at Realtime Worlds could be reached for comment. Sony staffers have been told the exec is retiring.

It’s worth noting that Ian Hetherington, RTW’s chairman, was a Psygnosis co-founder.

The Dundee outfit is currently working on MMO APB.

Chalk it up as rumour. But don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Want to work? Want to get paid for doing the work? Want to live in Dundee? You should probably look at the press release after the break.

Realtime Worlds is ensuring job applicants they’ll be paid overtime if they take the Scottish plunge.

“The games industry has long depended on getting excessive amounts of free overtime out of its developers, which in the long run just serves to drive them to another field. We want to ensure that Realtime Worlds is always very attractive – both creatively and financially – to our staff, and offering paid overtime is only fair when products of the standards we demand require more effort than is sometimes possible 9-5,” said HR boss John Duthie.

The firm currently has more than 40 jobs listed on its site. Apply. You’ll be given some money if you win.

More »

Update: Sorry, we boo-booed here. This is a Realtime Worlds ad, and the game’s APB. It’s an old post that’s just been refreshed. We apologise for being so shit. Thanks, TheDifficult3rdAlbum.

A GI job ad posted by a Dundee developer has revealed the company is working on a 360 MMO.

“Our client is one of the World’s leading XBOX360 developers now working on an MMO which is likely to be a benchmark for online action games for next-Gen consoles,” says the ad, which could probably do with a bit of an edit.

Which company? Well, it’s either Realtime Worlds or Ruffian, unless there’s a secret console developer in Dundee. Which there isn’t.

An online Crackdown game? That’d be a shock.

It’s not going away, and it sounds as though you’re about to hear an awful lot more about it. Newly formed Scottish developer Ruffian is most certainly working on a new Crackdown game, says “rumour” today, and apparently it’s scheduled for the end of 2009 or early 2010.

The project’s being called “Crackdown 1.5″ in the UK trade, and it’s set in the same city as the original Realtime Worlds 360 classic. Multiplayer’s going to play a massive part in the game, aparently, moreso than the new single-player stuff.

Just a hunch: you might hear more about this… tomorrow. Life on the edge, and all that.

Realtime Worlds put out a statement at the end of December saying the firm was in ongoing negotiations with Microsoft about continuing the franchise as a reaction to rumour that Ruffian had picked up a second game.

Ruffian – the Dundee-based developer comprised largely of ex-Crackdown staffers – was confirmed as open in late January.

VG247 has is on good authority that Microsoft is funding Scottish start-up Ruffian Games specifically to develop Crackdown 2.

We’ve been told this morning that a significantly-sized group of people resigned from Realtime Worlds approximately two weeks ago to form the new company.

Realtime Worlds has steadfastly refused this morning to give any information on the individuals that left.

A spokesperson told us on the phone that doing so would be “against the data protection act,” and declined to comment in any way.

Ruffian came to light this morning after Gamasutra posted a link to a Flickr set of members of the fledgling firm look at office space in Dundee.

Crackdown lead designer Billy Thomson is involved with Ruffian, as is Xen Group long-timer, Gaz Liddon. Xen provided physics, art and other resources for the original game.

Why Microsoft has decided to go it alone on the sequel is unknown.

The news is no real surprise. Microsoft dropped a heavy hint recently that something was moving forward with a much-wanted sequel, with Xbox Live’s director of programming, Larry Hryb telling MGS boss Phil Spencer in a podcast, “I’m here to tell you on behalf of the community, I want – we need – another Crackdown.

“That’s all I’m going to say, so you don’t have to confirm for deny anything. I’m just saying we want it.”

Spencer replied: “Yes, Crackdown’s one of my favourites. I’ll leave it at that.”

Microsoft UK was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

Crackdown 2! We are, quite literally, living the dream.