Auran goes into voluntary administration, entire staff let go

by William Dobson Dec 13th 2007 at 8:30AM

Filed under: Fury, Business models, Economy, MMO industry, News items

Sad news for the Australian games industry. GameSpot has the scoop on Auran, the Aussie developers of Fury, going into voluntary administration (meaning an independent and qualified party will take complete control of the company to attempt to resolve financial difficulties in the best manner possible). From here, subject to a meeting with the company's creditors, they will either be restructured or liquidated. But one thing is a certainty: all staff members, nearly 70 employees, have been laid off.

An anonymous company insider confirmed all of this with GameSpot, and also informed them that a handful of employees will be re-hired to look after Fury, which will remain online despite the ruinous situation at Auran. The first of the shakeups had already begun with yesterday's announcement of the new free-to-play business model, and the CEO Tony Hilliam had previously confirmed that some lay-offs would be made. It turns out now that with this voluntary administration, everyone was let go, and for all of the staff except the few re-hires, their involvement with the game and the company is over.

Fury reportedly cost $13.2 million to make, and it's pretty safe to say that the investors were not happy with their return.

Tags: administration, auran, auran-development, australia, breaking, laid-off, lay-off, tony-hilliam, voluntary-administration

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Ghen said on 8:39AM 12-13-2007

Well, that was fast.

Hollywood Ron said on 10:02AM 12-13-2007

You hate to see anyone lose their jobs.

Mike Schramm said on 10:20AM 12-13-2007

It is a bummer. But surely they knew this was coming.

Andy said on 1:37PM 12-18-2007

Doesn't make it right, but honestly I've been watching Gathering of Developers/Gamecock make complete asses out of themselves for years. Honestly nothing they've done has been terribly sucessful with the exception of Dementium, that DS horror game (lots of fun).

Actually I should say that their games are pretty good, but they seem only slightly better than indy games with 10x's the budgets.

Too much partying, reminds me of the .com days.

GRT said on 10:18AM 12-13-2007

Yeah, it's sad when people lose their jobs, in particular a few weeks before Christmas.

On the other hand, the game wasn't very good, and IMO partnering with a company like Gamecock is a risky path to tred. They piss off so many people with their antics..I suppose the theory is that they attract more than they piss off. I know the Gamecock affiliation was part of why I wasn't going to give them any of my money.

Tateru Nino said on 11:07AM 12-13-2007

Despite having friends at Auran - a couple of them were my students long ago as well - I must admit that the whole gamecock relationship soured things for me.

I hope they do alright, though - when this sort of thing happens, it's particularly crushing. You can bet that it was no less sudden for them than it seemed for us.

Coherent said on 1:14PM 12-13-2007

Fury was a bad idea to start with, and badly executed. I think it's petty to judge a game based on its "affiliations" (Oh noes, they're associating with the WRONG PEOPLE, horrors!) but Fury's concept held no interest whatsoever for me.

Might and power and fighting prowess is only relevant within an interesting CONTEXT. Fury had NO CONTEXT, it was just fighting for no particular reason; FOR UBARNESS!!1!

So of course it was made of epic fail. I would have been shocked and dismayed if it had done well, because it would have been a big victory for the "Dragonball Z"-like mindless conflict trend in MMO's.

Rick said on 6:39PM 12-13-2007

I don't see how they can say that all staff members have been let go, the Trainz (another Auran game) team still seems to exist and they still have a team working on updates to Fury...unless these are all outsourced I don't get it

JC said on 10:18PM 12-18-2007

People need to understand that the story is a press release and was a specific market announcement about "Auran Developments". The parent company is "Auran Holdings" and their other operational subsidiary, "Auran Games" are doing quite fine.

Since Fury and Trainz are now in their operational phases, they don't need development any more. Instead of winding up the development company and paying a truckload more cash, they simply put it in to "administration". It is an effective strategy for reducing costs and quickly offloading staff. I am not suggesting it is either an ethical or moral way to treat people but that's the way the world works.

The positive outcome is that the Australian gaming development community lives on - all staff will be paid out according to contract and the industry is eager to re-employ them, and those staff will get industry experience with a new organisation. Rinse and repeat. Blizzard staff beget Guild Wars staff. The world gets better.

Auran as a whole will live on too.

Judge Fury on its merits. Does it suck as a game or not? It's a fairly subjective opinion. And since the game now appears to be FREE, give it a go and make up your own mind.

I reckon everyone should download it and give it a go. At the very least show support for the oldest Australian games company that has put Australia on the world map as an outstanding creative developer - Dark Reign, Trainz, and Fury. All big projects. And with Fury they put more money into a single development than any other Australian games company ever.

Fury: http://www.unleashthefury.com/free2play/