stinky pointed out in the comments to our Fury post that it sounds like the development branch of Auran has closed up shop and gone into liquidation (slightly more info on this blog). This is in stark contrast to the earlier forum post we mentioned earlier, in which Auran CEO Tony Hilliam said "the death of Auran and FURY has been greatly exaggerated". More on this as it develops; there's no official statement or anything just yet.

From what Iv been told they have just finished the meeting with the employees.

I feel bad for them because this is a lot of people who have lost their jobs right before xmas, which is just s***, but I dont think it is a huge surprise :/

not really a suprise

timing sucks, teh govt will probably step in and pay out the employees at this stage though
a friend of mine was just terminated due to a liquidation, govt paid him 2 months wages

I posted this on QGL first! Don't give credit to some lame blog!

Wow Auran really got ownd by Fury didnt they! Would suck to have that much hard effort backfire like this.

It's a terrible shame to see this happen. While Auran has(had?) it's faults, it still housed some really talended people. Hopefully the rest of the local games studios can find homes for Auran refugees in the coming weeks.

The process of getting 'work went broke' benefits out of the govt. like annual leave owed etc is fairly lengthy and I don't the guys will see anything until Feb. That makes for a pretty s*** Xmas. Hopefully most people were smart enough to see the writing on the wall and have a little aside for such an occurance.

Poor buggers. I used to pick up mail from Auran when I worked for Aussie Post.

It's official:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2007/12/tony_hilliam_the_facts_about.html

Anybody for some Fury Ebay?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180194607457

you would think there would be money everywere for game devs
considering console sales and successes like wow

Game dev would be similar to other industries such as music, movies. There are a handful of people at the top calling all the shots and making big bucks. The large majority would be scrounging around trying to get that deal and make ends meet.

I've no experience, but I imagine game development would be freakin' hard.

This has just been confirmed by my m8 who works there. sad s***.

lol, your a bit late with the confirmations :P

you would think there would be money everywere for game devs
considering console sales and successes like wow

We're just the monkeys who make the games, we're not as important as the project leads, etc. Games industry pays okay, but it's certainly not how you get rich, that is unless you manage to work your way up to an important position. But then you're not really making the games any more.

Does anyone from QGL still work for Auran?

rudd's been in power for 2 weeks and already the jobs are going, don't say we didn't tell you

Yer because this has everything to do with government. /end troll baited

I feel really sorry for the guys working at Auran. It's a pretty rotten way to treat them.

Although, that being said, I'm not surprised.

##Edit: I'm not surprised for
1: Auran is a one hit wonder. No, niche games don't count.
2: Auran spent a lot of time doing anything else but trying to make popular games, again niche games don't count, i.e. trying to be a collaborative research centre.
3: Fury was over budget 3 years ago.
4: Fury has had massive revisions after every out of house showing they've had, i.e. user testing, or presentation to investors.

last edited by typo at 14:21:18 14/Dec/07

bad management, making rash decisions because of deadlines on an mmo does not help, just created more problems.

ive just played fury and the reviews ive read dont give it any justice, the game is great for a pvp only mmo, but yeah if it cost 15mil to make then they spent way to much.

15 Million Dollaaaarrs??


W T F? There are FREE MMO games made by people with a bit of spare time on their hands out there. Surly $15mil was overkill?

that's pretty average for the dev cycle of a game these days....

here's what will happen

1. auran closes development
2. auran reopens much much smaller development lab
3. game is launched for free, takes a while but eventually gets a few thousand/hundred thousand players (because they dont have to pay for it like wow)
4. they find some way of making a bucket load of cash from just having people play the game month to month (im thinking advertising)
5. cash

yeah they have already mentioned on the forums that advertising, in game and all over there s***ty site is a big possible option. they are also looking at selling items and s*** like that.