Ex-RTW Employee Calls Out Management Over Running of Studio

A former employee of Dundee studio Realtime Worlds has spoken out about the mismanagement inside the company which caused its fall into administration. Luke Halliwell, who worked on Crackdown, All Points Bulletin and Project: MyWorld, has said on his personal blog that he was surprised by the manner that he was let go, noting that “it felt like we were being let go decently, and then BOOM – not getting paid anything, owed last month’s wages, our notice periods, redundancy pay and unused holidays.”

In strong language, Halliwell spoke out against the RTW management, who said had “the behaviour of a deluded, greedy, addicted gambler” and that they had concerns about the mangement for a while: “You don’t get to burn through $100m without, shall we say, some opportunities to have done things differently.”

He noted that many of his American colleagues are now having to move back to the US without a month’s wages, “with the cost of getting them and their stuff home, to no benefits and no health insurance.” Of his former work-mates he said: “You couldn’t wish to meet a more intelligent, fun, warm-hearted and open-minded group of people. They made my 6 years there very, very special and I will miss them as we scatter to the winds.”

Halliwell and his family are moving to the US where he will be taking a non-games industry job.

In the comments of the article, a post apparently from Luke’s wife, Lucy Halliwell, displayed more blunty her opinions of the RTW managment. She expressed anger at founder Dave Jones and chairman Ian Hetherington who she said have “pissed away millions” and are “getting away with not paying 200 employees for the work they have done.” She continued:

Moreover these very people have enough personal wealth to pay the money owed to the individuals and families whose lives they have left shattered, heck Dave could probably pay them all just by selling one of his beloved cars.

She noted that she is “wondering what we have in the cupboard to feed the babies tomorrow as we cannot afford shop bought baby food right now” and addressing Dave Jones, she said:

If I end up having to put a bullet in my own horse’s head because no welfare charity has space for him I am going to barter my last possessions to have a fork lift driver dump his 800kg bloody carcass on the top of your favourite car.

We’re still in the dark as to what went on but, like Luke said, there has to have been something going on to merit such a monumental collapse and failure of the company’s employees.

In related news, figures for ABP players were released with “130,000 registered” players. This, however, does not include active players, which could be considerably less.

Life continues for some of the RTW staff, though. Last week, 23 of the Realtime Worlds staff were rehired to continue work on Project: MyWorld, a RTW property which aims to create a virtual version of the real world, with social networking and casual gaming feature built-in.

Via: GamesIndustry.biz