Auran Confirms Layoffs, Slow Start For Fury

In a new post on its official forums, Tony Hilliam, CEO of Fury developer Auran, is quoted as confirming that a slow start for the MMO has necessitated downsizing its 60 man team, as it moves to outsource development to Asia. The post sees Hilliam saying that after a ramp up from 30 to 70 staff members as it completed Fury and its Battlestar Galactica XBLA game it has made some cutbacks to "focus on a smaller, more agile core team of Fury developers." The CEO says it is working with fellow Australian developer Tantalus to move some displaced staff to that studio, which he notes is "working on DS and Wii titles," a process "taking place right now." Finally, he notes that "during the past two years we successfully used several outsourcing companies and will be looking to China to create much of the new content that we will release in future [Fury] updates" and will be "talking with a number of publishers in Asia regarding co-development deals." Auran has already seen major investment from China, getting AUD$4 million ($3.2 million) from China's CDC Corporation subsidiary CDC Games, which invested in primarily in Fury's development.