Laid-off Gameloft devs join Climax and open a New Zealand studio

Longtime British game developer Climax Studios has opened a new office in Auckland, New Zealand, staffed by developers who were laid off by Gameloft when it shuttered its New Zealand studio in January.

Gameloft's decision cost roughly 160 people their jobs, putting an estimated fifth of the New Zealand game industry out of work. Climax's new studio is a notable effort to capitalize on that abundance of local talent, though Develop reports Climax Auckland currently employs just nine people, all former Gameloft staffers. 

"It was a great opportunity to hire a group of engineers, who were both experienced, talented and are already used to working as a team,” Climax chief Simon Gardner told Develop. "The opportunity was just too good to miss."

While Climax has been making games since 1988 and is best known for producing ports and original takes on extant franchises (notably, Assassin's Creed Chronicles and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories), it has begun to dabble in VR development, and the new Auckland office will focus on developing "augmented reality projects" for an unspecified U.S. company.