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The remaining full-time workforce at collapsed Dundee outfit Realtime Worlds was made redundant last night, the studio’s administrator has confirmed.
Some 50 people were told in the early evening on Thursday that, with no buyer willing to rescue the studio, no work is left for them.
Seven staff still occupy the studio which just months ago housed far over 200. Those have been hired on a temporary basis to wind down the APB operation.
The developer’s administrator Begbies Traynor declined to comment on rumours that the fifty staff will not be given their redundancy pay.
APB, the studio’s final project, is now in the process of shutting down just two months after release. Some $100 million is said to have been spent on the title.
The first wave of staff cuts saw 157 jobs go, resulting in a rush of recruitment firms, publishers and developers flying out to the Dundee studio.
The fate of Realtime Worlds’ US-based satellite offices is unclear. A skeleton crew was said remained at the Boulder, Colorado studio to help RTW to continue as a going concern.
An announcement that the company is to close, both in the UK and US, is expected.
Realtime Worlds entered administration last month following lacklustre sales of APB, a game which cost over $100 million to build for launch.
Soon after, one anonymous US company moved in to buy Project Myworld – a pet project from the studio – as a single entity. This effectively broke the company up into at least two segments.
