Ruffian staff left RTW â??for console workâ??

Ruffian Games was formed by a group of the Realtime Worlds staff who wanted to retain focus on console game development, one of the studio’s executives has claimed.

Crackdown 2 producer James Cope left Realtime Worlds in 2009 – just months after local Dundee studio Ruffian had formed – and says that other staff had joined him in switching studios "because they wanted to make console games".

Realtime Worlds is currently developing APB, a five-year project that is – for now – exclusive to PC. Realtime Worlds has recently suggested it will eventually port the title to home consoles.

But Cope suggests that the desire to make traditional console games was too strong for some staff, and the neighbouring Ruffian Games was the outcome of this tension.

"We believe passionately in core video game experiences and that’s what we wanted to make,” Cope says in an interview with CVG.

“Some people felt that for want of better words they weren’t able to do that elsewhere.”

Ruffian officially opened its doors at the beginning of 2009 – a period where the global financial crisis had reached its nadir, as Cope explains:

“Ruffian was set up at a time in the British games industry when it was seriously concerning for people. Studios were closing – Free Radical had gone down – and all that sort of stuff. That was a period in the industry where studios like Midway were shutting down.”

He added: “We saw this as a great time to bring people together who wanted to make core games.”