Expansion Puts Real Time Worlds At Number One Spot

Author: Realtime Worlds

Leading Scottish based games developer, Real Time Worlds, is set to expand its Dundee workforce by over 30%, making it the biggest independent games company in Scotland. .

The news comes on the back of this month's world exclusive of the firm's eagerly anticipated new game, 'Crackdown', developed for Microsoft's next generation console Xbox 360, at the X05 conference in Amsterdam. Hailed as a 'GTA' beater, Crackdown is scheduled for release in the second half of next year.

'Crackdown' will push the action/driving genre into the next generation with the introduction of the first-ever truly 3-dimensional persistent playground, highly innovative co-op gameplay and an extensive prop interaction system. Set in a massive and highly-stylised, crime ridden, urban centre, gamers will enforce justice by any means necessary in a virtual city which encourages players to exploit its full width, depth and height, while exploring routes along, around, across, over, under or through the environment. 'Crackdown' is the first game in this genre to allow players to take on crime with a friend, through online cooperative play.

Founded in 2002 by Managing Director, Dave Jones, - creator of the multi-million unit selling franchises, Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings - Real Time Worlds has experienced growth at a rapid rate, enabling the firm to branch into the Korean market at the end of last year, opening an office in Seoul.

The Dundee development studio, which has successfully attracted employees from across the globe, currently employs 96 staff and boasts outstanding employee retention since the firm's inception in 2002. Looking to fill further programming, art and design roles, Real Time Worlds predicts that its current recruitment drive will increase its workforce by more than 30%, taking it to around 130 before the end of the year.

"Real Time Worlds is at the cutting edge of a number of technological areas and this is testament to the high calibre of staff we have attracted over the years," says Jones. "To succeed at the forefront of this sector we need to expand the Dundee development team and that means continuing to draw in staff - whether locally, from the huge pool of talent spilling out of the education system, or from further a field - who can work towards achieving our long-term goals."

Receiving an investment of £1.05 million last year, by the Helsinki-based CIM Venture Fund for Creative Industries and Scottish Enterprise's Co-Investment Fund, Real Time Worlds is currently in development of a number of groundbreaking projects. As well as 'Crackdown', the firm is also working on the Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) 'APB' for Korean publisher, Webzen, which will be the company's first offering into the online games market.

The firm's development teams in Dundee and Seoul have a longstanding reputation for producing groundbreaking content, which is further enhanced by being one of only a handful of UK games companies currently working on MMOG's. Online games have formed the backbone of Korean gaming culture for over a decade, and is the main revenue earner in the country's games market, pulling in $2 billion in 2003, 62% of a total $3.2 billion generated by the Korean games industry.

Real Time Worlds is also headed up by Tony Harman, former Director of Development and Acquisition at Nintendo of America, who joined Jones in 2003, along with Ian Hetherington, former Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and founder of Psygnosis. The three industry veterans are responsible for some of the world's best selling games.

The new positions to be filled will be based in the firm's Dundee studio with vacancies including, artists, designers and programmers. Additional information on all available positions can be found on the jobs page at www.realtimeworlds.com. Please send CV's to [email protected]

Pictures of new game 'Crackdown' available on the following link -

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/crackdown/default.htm

Press:

Stephanie Robertson

T: 01333 451 122

M: 07919 447 231

E: [email protected]

Real Time Worlds:

Colin Macdonald

T: 01382 202821

E: [email protected]